Do Vaccines Cause Autism?
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liveonearthOriginal link http://www.chiroweb.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=32017
Autism and Vaccine
By Tim O'Shea, DC
Perhaps one of the most shocking pieces ever to appear on television
this past April: a six-hour taping of a Congressional investigation
into the relationship between vaccines and autism among American
children.
This footage appeared on C-SPAN and was then archived on their website
for a entire month.
On April 6, Rep. Dan Burton convened the Congressional hearing in
which parents repeatedly told similar stories - how their normally
developing babies, after MMR or DPT vaccinations, began displaying
autistic behaviors, conditions that are often permanent. Happy, bright
children were suddenly losing their abilities to learn, communicate or
even recognize their parents.
Amazing testimony was given by experts in the field of autism:
Mary Megson,MD, explained how autism has gone from being rare (about
one incident per 10,000 children in 1978), to epidemic proportions in
2000 AD: one case in every 300-500 children in many areas! Megson's
research has shown total deficiency of vitamin A in almost all
autistic children. What depletes the body of vitamin A at 15 months?
The MMR vaccine. In addition, Megson found that pertussis toxin from
the DPT shot disrupted a certain protein that is necessary for retinal
formation. This would account for the prevalence of night-blindness
and loss of 3D vision so common among autistics.
John O'Leary,PhD, a world-class researcher and molecular biologist
from Ireland, using state-of-the-art sequencing technology, showed how
he had found the measles virus in the gut of 96% of autistic children,
compared to 6.6% in normal children. This virus did not come from the
natural disease, but from the measles vaccine. Dr. O'Leary found
measles virus present in 75% of children with Crohn's disease. Crohn's
has traditionally been an intestinal disease of adults, following
years of dietary abuse. Its appearance in children is a new event, and
Dr. O'Leary's work points to the measles virus from vaccines as the
likely cause.
V. Singh,MDM, a specialist from Utah State who has studied over 400
cases of autism, found that these children had experienced an
autoimmune episode, in which their own bodies had been made to attack
the linings of their nervous systems. Dr. Singh characterized the
epidemic as a "hyperimmune response to the measles virus." He stated
that 55% of the families said that autism appeared soon after an MMR
shot, and that 33% of families said it appeared soon after a DPT shot.
Such neurologic damage is a well-established side-effect of the
mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde used in these vaccines.
Andrew Wakefield,MD, a brilliant researcher from the UK, noted an
almost 100% incidence of "lymphoid nodular hyperplasia" or swollen
lumps throughout the intestinal tissue of autistics. Such a condition
is rare in normal children. Intestinal pathology is characteristic of
the autistic child, and the condition generally follows soon after the
MMR shot. Dr. Wakefield explained that as the fragile, newborn
intestine cannot function because of its swollen condition, undigested
toxins from vaccines and drugs are allowed to get into the liver,
which is also in a formative stage. Liver pathology is very common
among autistics. Wakefield's hypothesis is that these same "undegraded
toxins," having not been halted by the intestine or the liver, as
normally happens, that these toxins are then free to attack the
nervous system, and that autism may well be the result.
Kathy Pratt,PhD, director of the Indiana Center for Autism, stated
that 1 in 400 children in Indiana were autistic! With 500,000 cases
reported in the U.S., Dr. Pratt stated that autism is now more common
than Down's syndrome. Dr. Pratt points out that autism presently may
disqualify a person for medical coverage for other, unrelated
conditions.
Michael Goldberg,MD, a California pediatrician and researcher,
explained how it was impossible to have an epidemic based solely on
genetics. That's the standard excuse the CDC and the NIH have been
using to explain how autism has grown from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 300 in
just 22 years.
Seeing the American democratic system in action in a live
Congressional hearing, it soon becomes apparent how the control of
information operates, even in the face of overwhelming scientific
evidence that we may well be poisoning our own children!
The requisite defenders of the status quo robotically read their
predictable prepared statements, denying the possibility of any
connection between autism and vaccines. These included MDs Paul Offit,
Edwin Cook, Brent Taylor and others. After they uniformly denied the
vaccine/autism connection, it was most illuminating when Burton asked
each one of them point-blank about the money each received from the
vaccine manufacturers. And these are members of the advisory committee
who make the decisions about which vaccines are to be included in the
mandated vaccination schedule.
Colleen Boyle was there to represent the Centers for Disease Control.
After stumbling through her prepared statement in which she denied any
connection between autism and vaccines, Boyle stated the present
incidence to be "12 in 10,000." Burton then stopped her cold by asking
her one simple question: Did she think it was a conflict of interest
for the same people who were funded by the vaccine manufacturers to be
on the advisory board making decisions about which vaccines should be
given to American children? Boyle was dumfounded and speechless.
Burton repeated the question. Still no answer. Boyle's mute portrayal
of the career bureaucrat spoke volumes.
Equally inept and ill-prepared was Deborah Hirtz, MD, representing the
National Institutes of Health. Losing her place in her written
statement, Hirtz forgot what she was saying, and it seemed obvious she
had not written it. Finally, she just barely managed to put across
what she was sent there to say - that there could be no connection
between vaccines and autism, but that the NIH was "looking into it."
The NIH has already spent some $40 million per year of taxpayer money
"looking into it." (Hirtz) Their answer: It needs further study. The
performance of these representatives from the two government agencies
who have almost sovereign power in the area of vaccines was
frightening - their indifference; lack of information; condescension;
and low level of intelligence. They gave no sign of having understood
one word of the critically important breakthrough research that had
just been so brilliantly expounded by Drs. Megson, O'Leary, and
Wakefield. This is what power looks like - people who have been in
their position so long that they know they don't have to justify
themselves to anyone lower down on the food chain.
Government agencies have the same answer to every problem: more
committees; more money; more study; and more meetings. Meanwhile, 22
years have gone by, and all these people say is "we don't know." After
22 years and $100 million, we don't know the incidence, the cause or
the cure for autism. But we'll definitely "look into it." And, oh yes,
it's definitely "not vaccines."
The shocking scientific findings of Wakefield and O'Leary obviously
demand more research. So then, why are the vaccines not suspended
until that research is done? The underlying assumption is that the
vaccines will continue as normal until enough "research" proves it is
dangerous, as with rotavirus and Quadrigen. Only then will MMR be
suspended. This is the thinking that passes as logic. The key point
here that no one seems to be pointing out is that research should be
done before mandating a vaccine into the bloodstream of American
children! You don't just start mass-injecting something into a
population and then stand back and defy independent scientists to
prove it isn't safe! That's exactly what we've done here.
As a nation, as a government, and as parents, Americans should be very
certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that any substance being injected
into an unformed little nervous system is absolutely safe and does no
harm. That shoul be the minimum requirement. Drs. Wakefield, O'Leary,
and Megson have shown startling results from some of the only
scientific research on autism and vaccines in the entire world that
has not been funded by the vaccine manufacturers. This research also
shows a high likelihood that MMR and DPT vaccines may cause permanent
intestinal destruction, liver damage, and autism. It presents a very
plausible hypothesis for the horrific increase of autism since 1978.
So, until we know for certain if they're right, why are the vaccines
not suspended?
Researcher Gary Null's pert answer comes swimming to the surface;
"It's the money, stupid." By the end of the hearing, Burton's room was
polarized into three groups:
* those who were convinced of a connection between autism and vaccines
* those who admitted the possibility
* those who angrily denied the possibility, affronted that anyone
would question their "scientific" opinions
It was amusing to see which people in the room were trying to discover
the truth, and which were trying their best to cover it up.
Despite Burton's heroic efforts to bring these matters into public
view, it's an uphill struggle. The big money's on the side of
vaccines. Big money controls research, the press, "scientific"
journals, and politicians. Seeing all these forces clash together in
one room in just six hours has been the most instructive display of
confusing the issues perhaps since the OJ trial. Watching a live
congressional hearing like this, it soon becomes clear that for them,
the real priority isn't necessarily finding the truth, but rather
showing who's really in charge here. The viewer begins to understand
how autism could have gone from being unknown in 1978 to being a
household word in just 22 years with so little fanfare.
Without undue pessimism, the prospects for unbiased, objective
scientific logic to prevail in deciding the future of MMR and DPT
vaccines do not look bright. The mentality of the CDC and the NIH was
well characterized in this videotape. The control of research and
information by drug manufacturers was pervasive. Burton's co-chairman,
Henry Waxman, did his best to divert attention from the issues to
himself, to waste time on "points of order," and to prevent anyone who
disagreed with him from being heard. Waxman's science champion,
researcher Brent Taylor,MD, has recently had an article published in
Lancet that supposedly shows no possible connection between vaccines
and autism. Now Taylor has refused to provide his data for the study
when repeatedly asked by other researchers, like Dr. Bernard Rimland.
Such a request is standard, and researchers commonly share their data
when requested, unless they have something to hide. Taylor's
combination of fear and arrogance is characteristic of the way that
research, and ultimately, decision-making on vaccines by the advisory
committee. The researchers who have unlimited funding may 'prove'
whatever they wish, get it published in the best journals, which are
heavily advertised in by the drug companies, and then refuse to
respond to valid objections, because they know that those opposing
points of view will probably not be published.
Despite these formidable obstacles, doubts are creeping into the
overall public "consciousness" from many different directions about
the safety of vaccines. At one in 500, the fact of autism as an
epidemic can no longer be covered up. The work of Wakefield, O'Leary,
and Megson is going to be very difficult to explain away. The massive
advertising campaign about the safety of vaccines in the popular
media, which is certain to be stepped up in the next few months, is
going to look very hollow in the light of clean, unbiased research
that is not funded by parties who stand to make billions from certain
predetermined results.
Author's note: Excerpted from forthcoming third edition of the
Sanctity of Human Blood, New West, Publisher.
References
1. http://www.c-span.org . Government Reform Committee hearing on
vaccines and autism, 6 Apr 2000, Chairman: Representative Dan Burton.
2. Testimony before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
Government Reform, 6 Apr 2000: Hirtz D, National Institutes of Health
Megson M, MD, American Academy of Pediatrics
Wakefield A, MD, Royal Free University College Medical School.
O'Leary J, PhD, Coomb's Women's Hospital, Dublin.
Singh V, PhD, Utah State University
Boyle C, MD, National Institutes of Health
Offit P, MD, University of Pennsylvania
Taylor B, MD, Royal Free University College Medical
Rimland B, PhD, Autism Research Institute, San Diego
Goldberg M, MD, NIDS Research Institute
Reprints of testimony are available from the Office of Government
Reform, Washington, DC (202) 225-2276 Videotape available from
http://www.c-span.org .
Tim O'Shea
San Jose, California
www.thedoctorwithin.com
Autism and Vaccine
By Tim O'Shea, DC
Perhaps one of the most shocking pieces ever to appear on television
this past April: a six-hour taping of a Congressional investigation
into the relationship between vaccines and autism among American
children.
This footage appeared on C-SPAN and was then archived on their website
for a entire month.
On April 6, Rep. Dan Burton convened the Congressional hearing in
which parents repeatedly told similar stories - how their normally
developing babies, after MMR or DPT vaccinations, began displaying
autistic behaviors, conditions that are often permanent. Happy, bright
children were suddenly losing their abilities to learn, communicate or
even recognize their parents.
Amazing testimony was given by experts in the field of autism:
Mary Megson,MD, explained how autism has gone from being rare (about
one incident per 10,000 children in 1978), to epidemic proportions in
2000 AD: one case in every 300-500 children in many areas! Megson's
research has shown total deficiency of vitamin A in almost all
autistic children. What depletes the body of vitamin A at 15 months?
The MMR vaccine. In addition, Megson found that pertussis toxin from
the DPT shot disrupted a certain protein that is necessary for retinal
formation. This would account for the prevalence of night-blindness
and loss of 3D vision so common among autistics.
John O'Leary,PhD, a world-class researcher and molecular biologist
from Ireland, using state-of-the-art sequencing technology, showed how
he had found the measles virus in the gut of 96% of autistic children,
compared to 6.6% in normal children. This virus did not come from the
natural disease, but from the measles vaccine. Dr. O'Leary found
measles virus present in 75% of children with Crohn's disease. Crohn's
has traditionally been an intestinal disease of adults, following
years of dietary abuse. Its appearance in children is a new event, and
Dr. O'Leary's work points to the measles virus from vaccines as the
likely cause.
V. Singh,MDM, a specialist from Utah State who has studied over 400
cases of autism, found that these children had experienced an
autoimmune episode, in which their own bodies had been made to attack
the linings of their nervous systems. Dr. Singh characterized the
epidemic as a "hyperimmune response to the measles virus." He stated
that 55% of the families said that autism appeared soon after an MMR
shot, and that 33% of families said it appeared soon after a DPT shot.
Such neurologic damage is a well-established side-effect of the
mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde used in these vaccines.
Andrew Wakefield,MD, a brilliant researcher from the UK, noted an
almost 100% incidence of "lymphoid nodular hyperplasia" or swollen
lumps throughout the intestinal tissue of autistics. Such a condition
is rare in normal children. Intestinal pathology is characteristic of
the autistic child, and the condition generally follows soon after the
MMR shot. Dr. Wakefield explained that as the fragile, newborn
intestine cannot function because of its swollen condition, undigested
toxins from vaccines and drugs are allowed to get into the liver,
which is also in a formative stage. Liver pathology is very common
among autistics. Wakefield's hypothesis is that these same "undegraded
toxins," having not been halted by the intestine or the liver, as
normally happens, that these toxins are then free to attack the
nervous system, and that autism may well be the result.
Kathy Pratt,PhD, director of the Indiana Center for Autism, stated
that 1 in 400 children in Indiana were autistic! With 500,000 cases
reported in the U.S., Dr. Pratt stated that autism is now more common
than Down's syndrome. Dr. Pratt points out that autism presently may
disqualify a person for medical coverage for other, unrelated
conditions.
Michael Goldberg,MD, a California pediatrician and researcher,
explained how it was impossible to have an epidemic based solely on
genetics. That's the standard excuse the CDC and the NIH have been
using to explain how autism has grown from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 300 in
just 22 years.
Seeing the American democratic system in action in a live
Congressional hearing, it soon becomes apparent how the control of
information operates, even in the face of overwhelming scientific
evidence that we may well be poisoning our own children!
The requisite defenders of the status quo robotically read their
predictable prepared statements, denying the possibility of any
connection between autism and vaccines. These included MDs Paul Offit,
Edwin Cook, Brent Taylor and others. After they uniformly denied the
vaccine/autism connection, it was most illuminating when Burton asked
each one of them point-blank about the money each received from the
vaccine manufacturers. And these are members of the advisory committee
who make the decisions about which vaccines are to be included in the
mandated vaccination schedule.
Colleen Boyle was there to represent the Centers for Disease Control.
After stumbling through her prepared statement in which she denied any
connection between autism and vaccines, Boyle stated the present
incidence to be "12 in 10,000." Burton then stopped her cold by asking
her one simple question: Did she think it was a conflict of interest
for the same people who were funded by the vaccine manufacturers to be
on the advisory board making decisions about which vaccines should be
given to American children? Boyle was dumfounded and speechless.
Burton repeated the question. Still no answer. Boyle's mute portrayal
of the career bureaucrat spoke volumes.
Equally inept and ill-prepared was Deborah Hirtz, MD, representing the
National Institutes of Health. Losing her place in her written
statement, Hirtz forgot what she was saying, and it seemed obvious she
had not written it. Finally, she just barely managed to put across
what she was sent there to say - that there could be no connection
between vaccines and autism, but that the NIH was "looking into it."
The NIH has already spent some $40 million per year of taxpayer money
"looking into it." (Hirtz) Their answer: It needs further study. The
performance of these representatives from the two government agencies
who have almost sovereign power in the area of vaccines was
frightening - their indifference; lack of information; condescension;
and low level of intelligence. They gave no sign of having understood
one word of the critically important breakthrough research that had
just been so brilliantly expounded by Drs. Megson, O'Leary, and
Wakefield. This is what power looks like - people who have been in
their position so long that they know they don't have to justify
themselves to anyone lower down on the food chain.
Government agencies have the same answer to every problem: more
committees; more money; more study; and more meetings. Meanwhile, 22
years have gone by, and all these people say is "we don't know." After
22 years and $100 million, we don't know the incidence, the cause or
the cure for autism. But we'll definitely "look into it." And, oh yes,
it's definitely "not vaccines."
The shocking scientific findings of Wakefield and O'Leary obviously
demand more research. So then, why are the vaccines not suspended
until that research is done? The underlying assumption is that the
vaccines will continue as normal until enough "research" proves it is
dangerous, as with rotavirus and Quadrigen. Only then will MMR be
suspended. This is the thinking that passes as logic. The key point
here that no one seems to be pointing out is that research should be
done before mandating a vaccine into the bloodstream of American
children! You don't just start mass-injecting something into a
population and then stand back and defy independent scientists to
prove it isn't safe! That's exactly what we've done here.
As a nation, as a government, and as parents, Americans should be very
certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that any substance being injected
into an unformed little nervous system is absolutely safe and does no
harm. That shoul be the minimum requirement. Drs. Wakefield, O'Leary,
and Megson have shown startling results from some of the only
scientific research on autism and vaccines in the entire world that
has not been funded by the vaccine manufacturers. This research also
shows a high likelihood that MMR and DPT vaccines may cause permanent
intestinal destruction, liver damage, and autism. It presents a very
plausible hypothesis for the horrific increase of autism since 1978.
So, until we know for certain if they're right, why are the vaccines
not suspended?
Researcher Gary Null's pert answer comes swimming to the surface;
"It's the money, stupid." By the end of the hearing, Burton's room was
polarized into three groups:
* those who were convinced of a connection between autism and vaccines
* those who admitted the possibility
* those who angrily denied the possibility, affronted that anyone
would question their "scientific" opinions
It was amusing to see which people in the room were trying to discover
the truth, and which were trying their best to cover it up.
Despite Burton's heroic efforts to bring these matters into public
view, it's an uphill struggle. The big money's on the side of
vaccines. Big money controls research, the press, "scientific"
journals, and politicians. Seeing all these forces clash together in
one room in just six hours has been the most instructive display of
confusing the issues perhaps since the OJ trial. Watching a live
congressional hearing like this, it soon becomes clear that for them,
the real priority isn't necessarily finding the truth, but rather
showing who's really in charge here. The viewer begins to understand
how autism could have gone from being unknown in 1978 to being a
household word in just 22 years with so little fanfare.
Without undue pessimism, the prospects for unbiased, objective
scientific logic to prevail in deciding the future of MMR and DPT
vaccines do not look bright. The mentality of the CDC and the NIH was
well characterized in this videotape. The control of research and
information by drug manufacturers was pervasive. Burton's co-chairman,
Henry Waxman, did his best to divert attention from the issues to
himself, to waste time on "points of order," and to prevent anyone who
disagreed with him from being heard. Waxman's science champion,
researcher Brent Taylor,MD, has recently had an article published in
Lancet that supposedly shows no possible connection between vaccines
and autism. Now Taylor has refused to provide his data for the study
when repeatedly asked by other researchers, like Dr. Bernard Rimland.
Such a request is standard, and researchers commonly share their data
when requested, unless they have something to hide. Taylor's
combination of fear and arrogance is characteristic of the way that
research, and ultimately, decision-making on vaccines by the advisory
committee. The researchers who have unlimited funding may 'prove'
whatever they wish, get it published in the best journals, which are
heavily advertised in by the drug companies, and then refuse to
respond to valid objections, because they know that those opposing
points of view will probably not be published.
Despite these formidable obstacles, doubts are creeping into the
overall public "consciousness" from many different directions about
the safety of vaccines. At one in 500, the fact of autism as an
epidemic can no longer be covered up. The work of Wakefield, O'Leary,
and Megson is going to be very difficult to explain away. The massive
advertising campaign about the safety of vaccines in the popular
media, which is certain to be stepped up in the next few months, is
going to look very hollow in the light of clean, unbiased research
that is not funded by parties who stand to make billions from certain
predetermined results.
Author's note: Excerpted from forthcoming third edition of the
Sanctity of Human Blood, New West, Publisher.
References
1. http://www.c-span.org . Government Reform Committee hearing on
vaccines and autism, 6 Apr 2000, Chairman: Representative Dan Burton.
2. Testimony before U.S. House of Representatives Committee on
Government Reform, 6 Apr 2000: Hirtz D, National Institutes of Health
Megson M, MD, American Academy of Pediatrics
Wakefield A, MD, Royal Free University College Medical School.
O'Leary J, PhD, Coomb's Women's Hospital, Dublin.
Singh V, PhD, Utah State University
Boyle C, MD, National Institutes of Health
Offit P, MD, University of Pennsylvania
Taylor B, MD, Royal Free University College Medical
Rimland B, PhD, Autism Research Institute, San Diego
Goldberg M, MD, NIDS Research Institute
Reprints of testimony are available from the Office of Government
Reform, Washington, DC (202) 225-2276 Videotape available from
http://www.c-span.org .
Tim O'Shea
San Jose, California
www.thedoctorwithin.com
