Today is "Evidence of Harm Day" in the autism community. I encourage anyone and everyone to buy a copy of reporter David Kirby's amazing book (see the ad in the NYT) on the controversy surrounding childhood vaccines, Thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative) and the increased incidence of childhood autism.
Why? To draw attention to an issue that most of the media continues to ignore; and that the medical establishment refuses to acknowledge. To educate people about an important issue of children's health. To save lives. Kirby's book reads like a mystery or a thriller, but lays out the science involved in a coherent and rational manner. You can find out more about the book, as well as the subject at http://www.evidenceofharm.com, and after the jump, I'll explain why I care.
I have a six-year old son on the autism spectrum. He was pretty much fine until he reached about two-years of age. Then he started acting weird, developed tics and repetitive vocal habits. He became both over- and under-sensitive to touch, texture and sound. He became enraged over nothing and couldn't control it. He couldnt digest certain foods and developed allergies to wheat, food-dyes, corn syrup and a host of other substances contained in food. His reactions would involve unfocused, wild, violent behavior.
My son had had a lot of ear infections and wheezing, asthma like episodes. He had gotten antibiotics. Could that have something to do with it? Why was he sick so much? Could it be his immune system? The doctors told us everything was fine. But it wasn't. We had him evaluated and he was labeled as having Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.
They told us it was genetic or that they didn't really know where it came from. When we outlined the digestive problems, they shrugged. When we asked about the possibility that vaccines might have played a role, they looked at us like Satan had sent us. You're not some of those anti-vaccine whackos, are you?
Well, no, actually, we're not. But the number of vaccinations that children has received has doubled since 1990, and the amount of mercury many are receiving has increased accordingly. Something happened to our son and we're pretty sure it happened to him at the hands of the medical community. Thanks to tireless research by my wife, we now know that our son had multiple vaccinations containing Thimerosal, which is ethyl-mercury. We know that she had multiple Rogam shots when pregnant, to prevent an antibody reaction to the fetus in women with rH negative blood. They also contained Thimerosal. We know that at least one set of vaccines was given when our son was still ill with an upper-respiratory infection, which is a big no-no.
Any number of things could have contibuted to our son's condition. And autism is complicated. It isn't as simple as administer mercury, get autism, although the symptoms of autism mirror those of mercury-poisoning almost exactly. I actually was not convinced of the mercury hypothesis until reading David Kirby's book.
The book is not a polemic on vaccines, although it tells the story from the point of view of a group of parents with autistic children who challenge the government, the pharmaceutical industry and accepted wisdom to demand answers about the connection between the mercury in vaccines and their children's autism.
I am convinced our son's autism is not genetic(other than he may be genetically sensitive to mercury) because I saw it happen. I saw him become "autistic". And I have talked to other parents who have seen their healthy, normal children become non-verbal or regress overnight after a vaccination. And because we've tested my son for heavy metals. And we're using a process called chelation to remove the metals, including mercury, and guess what? He's getting better.
The point is there are hundreds of thousands of parents like us who want some answers and what we get from mainstream medicine is defensiveness, scorn and derision. Research on the problem is not being done and not being funded because the CDC, the FDA and others will not recognize the problem. They won't recognize the problem because that would mean maybe they did this to our kids and no one wants to face that, or the liability that comes with it. Which is why Bill Frist slipped that rider into the Homeland Security bill protecting vaccine makers from lawsuits at the behest of the White House. Which is why the CDC continues to refuse to release the raw data from its epidemiological study on autism and vaccines. Which is why Thimerosal is quietly being removed from vaccines "voluntarily" without any admission from anyone that injecting a known neurotoxin into babies just might cause some neurological damage.
It's mercury for god's sake. We evacuate schools if a thermometer breaks, but there's no "evidence of harm" if we put mercury in vaccines and then shoot it into our children's veins?
Read the book. It's all in there. The science, the politics (and I'm afraid to say the democrats don't look too good, whereas Dan Burton does), the unbelievable arrogance of our health bureaucrats and the unbelievable bravery of some parents who want anwers.