FDA Knew Dangers Of Thimerosal-Vaccines For 60 Years

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 4 of 4 page(s)

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To this day, vaccines with full doses of Thimerosal are still out there. Last time I checked, I found products with expiration dates as late as September 2005.

The oft asked question is why would regulatory agencies allow Thimerosal to remain in vaccines? As usual, their initial motive was to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical industry that would be lost if the preservative was removed and packaging was limited to single dose vials, because many of the same researchers, advisory board members, and officials who were involved in the vaccine approval process were also benefiting financially from drug company money.

An investigation by United Press International, found that members of the CDC's Vaccine Advisory Committee, received financial benefits from sharing a vaccine patent; owning stock in a vaccine company; payments for research; payments to monitor manufacturer vaccine tests; and funding to academic departments.

What kind of money are we talking about here? Picture this. The annual global market for vaccines is expected to rise to $10 billion by 2006, according to UPI.

However by this late date, the effort to hide the truth about Thimerosal by the FDA and CDC, is fueled by fear over the amount of money the industry, and quite possibly the government agencies it conspired with to conceal the harm, are going to end up paying out in law suits for injuring millions of children.

With that in mind, officials make sure the media steadily repeats the mantra of a May 2004 Institute of Medicine report that claims there is no link between Thimerosal and autism. However, since that report was released, Steven Goodman, MD, MHS, Ph.D, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and member of the IOM panel, has backed off from the report's certainty and said:

"It was clear from the report that we were not giving thimerosal a clean bill of health. Mercury is definitely a neurotoxin. ... We only said that the evidence favored that there was not a connection between autism and thimerosal exposure," according to the Naples Sun Times on April 27, 2005.

Researcher, Mark Geier, is a doctor with a PhD in genetics and a court-certified expert on vaccines. He has determined through numerous studies that Thimerosal is to blame and has this to say, "the current epidemic of autism may well be the greatest iatrogenic epidemic in history. The damage already done to our society is already in the trillions of dollars. The damage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and that of the AIDS epidemic pale when compared to the current epidemic of autism."

Parents of injured children and tax payers are already paying an enormous price for this man-made epidemic. According to a June 19, 2002 Written Supplement to Oral Testimony at the Hearing of the Government Reform Committee, by James Bradstreet, MD, FAAFP, Clinical Director, The International Child Development Resource Center, "the cost of education, medical care, and therapies for behavioral and physical symptoms is staggering. Many of our families report having paid $50,000 per year to care for their child."

"Custodial care for autism can exceed $100,000/year," Bradstreet said, "The public education system is literally swamped with children." Schools lack the therapists and specially trained educators to deal with the epidemic.

Back in 2002, according to Bradstreet, the Resource Center estimated the minimal cost to care for the 420,000 existing children with autism to be $1,260,000,000,000 (based on $3 million/lifetime). So a little over a $1 trillion over the next 50 years would be required if the rising number of new cases ceased in 2002.

However, because autism was doubling every four years, Bradstreet warned, "this is likely an overly conservative estimate. The societal cost could easily be $3-4 trillion."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of potential earnings lost as a result of the large number of children who will never be self-supporting is impossibly to calculate. Many parents are currently unable to work because they must stay home to care for a disabled child. Anything short of a miracle cure means these children will be disabled for life.

If the Republicans succeed in passing legislation that will immunize vaccine makers from liability for the injuries they caused by Thimerosal, Americans had better be prepared to pay higher taxes to cover the cost of live-long care for the millions of kids who have been damaged.

Evelyn Pringle
epringle05@yahoo.com

(Evelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government)

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