Report:
Government knew of autism link
By Jon Brodkin
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Eight
years before the U.S. government decided to remove mercury
from most childhood vaccines, federal health officials were
already receiving reports linking vaccinations to new cases
of autism.
Starting
in 1991 after the government set up a database to record adverse
reactions to vaccines, doctors, parents and others reported
frightening responses to inoculations in children subsequently
diagnosed with autism.
Vaccinated
children exhibited severe brain damage, high-pitched "hyena" laughs
and screams, drunken behavior, senseless babbling, infantile
spasms and seizures, "bug-eyed" looks, and the complete
loss of abilities like toilet training and language, according
to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).
There
were 83 such reports from across the country before the government
asked vaccine manufacturers in 1999 to remove thimerosal --
a preservative containing mercury.
The
government still denies that toxic mercury injected into infants
caused a huge increase in autism prevalence, but parents say
federal officials did not act upon reports linking vaccines
to autism quickly enough.
"My
stomach twisted and turned," Acton parent Jeannie Meijer
wrote in an e-mail after reading the reports. "It's tough
to think that if people had been paying more attention, or
been more honest, the autism epidemic may not have happened
and my son may have been spared. Really tough."
The
83 autism reports in the 1990s in VAERS were submitted as evidence
in a Texas court case that ended last year.
Government
officials say the VAERS database cannot be used to draw conclusions
about autism because it records reports from anyone, whether
they be doctors, patients or lawyers. But government officials
relied on VAERS data when it suspended a rotavirus vaccine
in 1999 after just 15 reports linking it to infant bowel obstruction.
VAERS
had already recorded 15 reports linking vaccines to autism
by 1994.
"Why
would the governmental agencies charged with ensuring a safe
vaccine supply ignore so many reports and continue to put millions
of children at risk, including both of our sons?" asked
Jared Hansen, a Framingham parent of two autistic boys. "Who
benefits from the silence?"
Hansen
and his wife, Marjorie, filed one of 4,700 claims pending in
a national vaccine court alleging that thimerosal in vaccines
caused their children to be autistic. The cases, which are
being heard in a single proceeding, are expected to be resolved
in about three years. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Legislature
is considering a proposal to ban thimerosal in the state.
After
hearing government officials spend years denying any connection
between vaccines and autism, the Hansens found it disturbing
to read the VAERS reports from long before mercury was removed
from infant shots.
"It
was actually pretty emotional," Jared said. "My wife
was crying about it....There's so much of it that's familiar.
You read through it, there's a real pattern that emerges. It's
disturbing to think this was all before my sons were exposed."
Federal
health officials deny the VAERS reports should have spurred
earlier action on mercury in vaccines. The VAERS data "in
and of itself is not a strong signal," said Glen Nowak,
spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It's
not a database that was ever designed to track the incidence
or prevalence of any disease or disorder," Nowak said.
In
the case of the rotavirus vaccine, there was evidence from
clinical trials suggesting it may cause bowel obstruction in
some infants even before the vaccine hit the market, Nowak
said. Therefore, health officials were on the lookout for adverse
events related to the rotavirus vaccine, but did not look for
patterns the VAERS database might have shown in autism reporting.
The
VAERS autism reports also did not mention the mercury preservative
specifically, Nowak said. But he did not deny that the government
knew mercury -- a neurotoxin -- was present in vaccines.
While
the rotavirus vaccine is now off the market, the U.S. Public
Health Service in 1999 asked -- but did not require -- manufacturers
to remove mercury from vaccines. Thimerosal was phased out
of most infant shots over several years, but it is still widely
used in flu shots routinely given to babies and pregnant women.
Research
investigating a potential link between vaccines and autism
was spurred by huge increases in the disease's prevalence observed
in the 1990s after the government more than doubled the amount
of mercury infants were being given through vaccines.
An
Institute of Medicine report in 2004 found no link between
autism and thimerosal. "There were five very solid epidemiologic
studies (we looked at). All of them came down on the side of
no association between thimerosal and autism," said Dr.
Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who was chairman of the
IOM committee.
But
a confidential CDC study in 2000 actually found that children
were 2.5 times more likely to develop autism when they receive
62.5 micrograms of mercury from vaccines at 3 months of age.
The study was uncovered by an advocacy group under the Freedom
of Information Act.
"They're
on record saying there's no effect from thimerosal, it's completely
safe, even though their own internal studies show it's harmful," said
researcher David Geier.
Children
injected with 62.5 micrograms of mercury in a single day, as
many were, were given a dose 129 times higher than a federal
safety limit, Geier said.
Last
week, Geier and his father, Dr. Mark Geier, reported that an
analysis of VAERS and two other databases shows that new autism
diagnoses have declined since thimerosal was removed from most
childhood vaccines, a finding supportive of an autism-vaccine
connection.
Parents
and researchers who believe thimerosal causes autism say the
government should have identified this possibility years ago
when they began receiving reports from doctors and families.
CDC
officials argue that the VAERS database is not reliable in
part because it is influenced by media reporting on certain
diseases. The media influence may be seen in nearly 800 autism
reports filed since 2000.
But
the 83 reports in the 1990s came before the topic received
widespread media coverage, and likely represent just a fraction
of autism cases caused by thimerosal, advocates said.
Andy
Waters, an attorney who submitted the reports as evidence in
the Texas court case, decided to use data only from the 1990s
because "I didn't want it to be an artifact of the press."
Waters'
case alleging that a child became autistic because of thimerosal
was dismissed after he failed to prove the preservative harmed
the specific child. But Texas Judge T. John Ward's ruling states
that the court could not dismiss a general link between pediatric
vaccines and autism.
The
VAERS database, while not definitive proof of harm caused by
thimerosal, provides parents a chilling reminder of their own
struggles. Jeannie Meijer watched her son Matthew, born in
2000, develop normally until he was 18 months old. Then, like
many other children who received mercury-containing vaccines,
Matthew regressed until the only word he could say was "mama."
The
federal database includes reports of autistic children with
encephalopathy, literally a disease that alters brain function
or structure. An Illinois boy suffered a major seizure eight
hours after a vaccine, resulting in permanent brain damage.
Another
autistic child lost the ability to play and began acting deaf.
One girl less than a year old developed spasms lasting 15 minutes
just hours after a vaccination. Another repeatedly banged his
head and still another was hospitalized with "full-blown" seizures.
Bobbie
Manning, who has a 10-year-old son with autism, said on the
day his son was born he was given a dose of mercury in a Hepatitis
B vaccine that would be considered safe under federal guidelines
only if he had weighed 550 pounds.
Manning,
vice president of A-CHAMP, a New York-based parents' advocacy
group, was shocked when she began learning about mercury's
presence in vaccines.
"I
thought to myself, if I gave my child thimerosal, I'd be going
to jail," she said.
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