Vaccines And Autism: A New Piece In The Puzzle?
4 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // June 29th, 2008 // 9:49 am
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is holding a meeting today with leading experts on an mitochondrial disorders to discuss the controversial case of a 9-year-old girl from Athens, Georgia, who became autistic after receiving numerous vaccinations, The New York Times reports.
But, the paper writes, the government has so far kept quiet about a second case that some say is more disturbing and more relevant to the meeting. On Jan. 11, a 6-year-old girl from Colorado received the FluMist vaccine and about a week later “became weak with multiple episodes of falling to ground” and “difficulty walking,” according to a case report filed with federal health officials and obtained by the Times.
The girl grew increasingly weak and feverish and “became more limp, appears sleepy, acts as if drunk,” the report said, according to the paper, adding that she was hospitalized and underwent surgery, and was finally withdrawn from life support. She died on April 5, according to the report, the paper writes.
Both children had mitochondrial disorders which, the paper writes, is a spectrum of genetic diseases that have received little attention from federal health officials. The 9-year-old, Hannah Poling, was 19 months old and developing normally in 2000 when she received five shots against nine infectious diseases. Two days later, she developed a fever, cried inconsolably and refused to walk. Over the next few months, she worsened and was diagnosed with autism the next year, the paper notes. Her dad, however, doesn’t oppose vaccines.
Whether vaccinations are related to the girls’ health problems is unclear, and the scientific significance of individual cases is always difficult to assess, the Times writes. But suggestions that mitochondrial disorders could be sparked or worsened by vaccinations, and that the disorders may be linked to autism, prompted the meeting and has brought the disorders sudden national attention, the paper points out.
John Iskander, acting director of the immunization safety office at the CDC, tells the paper that his group studied the Colorado case closely but did not discuss it with those presenting at the meeting and had no plans to present the case to the conference, although he and members of his group will attend, the Times writes.
“Part of the consideration is, what was the best use of that time?” Iskander tells the Times. “To a large extent, the judgment of the meeting organizers was to have the experts in these conditions - which are not vaccine safety experts - to have most of the agenda.”
Iskander tells the Times that the group had concluded “that this is another case that points to the need of better data on the risks and benefits of vaccinations in children with these rare disorders.” Studies have failed to show any link between vaccines and autism, but many parents of autistic children are convinced vaccines are to blame, the Times writes.
But the Poling case, the paper continues, offered advocates a new theory: that vaccines may cause or contribute to an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which in turn causes autism. Although autism is common among children with mitochondrial disorders, several experts in the disorders dismissed the notion that vaccines may cause the disease, which is widely understood to have a genetic origin.
ATG
Mitochondrial disease may be rare and genetic but mitochondrial dysfunction is not uncommon, seems to be ubiquitous in autism and is not genetic. Vulnerability to mitochondrial dysfunction may or may not be genetic. Some individuals have “fragile” mitochondrial systems apparently (more common in people with higher IQ’s), some may have environmentally damaged systems.
Many things seem to cause mitochondrial dysfunction, including mercury. Susceptibility to autism isn’t the only risk of mitochondrial dysfunction, since it also increases vulnerability to certain cancers and many diseases. Rachel Carson, in “The Silent Spring” predicted that environmentally induced mitochondrial dysfunction would be the eventual downfall of many species of plant and animal. Those chickens are coming home to roost in more ways than one these days.
Gardiner Harris again got it wrong about the mercury and MMR theories being debunked and he misreports on the removal of thimerosal in vaccines. There was never mandatory removal in 2001, it was a voluntary phase out which was hardly followed in a timely manner. Furthermore, old stock of full-mercury vaccines remained on the shelves as late as 2007, and Rhogam shots given to Rh- women contained thimerosal as late as 2003 and beyond. Coupled with the flu shot administered prenatally and for infants, up to 2006 and possibly 2007, a child could receive as much or more mercury in vaccinations as they might have in the mid-1990’s, when the average cumulative amount was well over 200 micrograms for children by the age of 2. 25 micrograms of mercury is 50 times the EPA limit for an infant, so the math on this is pretty alarming.
The flu shot alone– not including the cumulative “trace” amounts still in many other routine vaccinations– given to infants and toddlers today brings the amount of mercury exposure for vaccinated children back up to about 60% of mid-90’s level, which does not include other sources, such as prenatal flu shots, mom’s dental amalgams and the rapidly increasing sources of environmental methylmercury, such as fish consumption, broken CFL, trash burning facilities, proximity to coal-fire power plants or cement-making facilities or whether a child lives in the path of the “China mercury plume” in California and Oregon.
Rather than the heat being off the mercury theory of autism, things have ramped up with the Texas study on school district proximity to coal-fire power plants and increased rates, the infant monkey studies and reviews of some of the flawed data supposedly exonerating thimerosal. Last but not least is the CDC’s own recant of the validity of the Verstraeton VSD data which was the basis for the 2004 IOM decision that vaccines did not cause autism.
As far as the MMR theory, this has long been compatible with the mercury theory, as it’s believed by many that a combination of assaults on the immune system and methylation processes in the body and brain create a one-two (or more) punch resulting in regressive autism. The individual toxins which cause autism may end up being a short list of things which induce almost identical damage to the brain (Depakote, mercury, certain pesticides) but the list of things which induce mitochondrial dysfunction and set children up for increased risk for autism by making them more susceptible to certain toxins is quite long and includes pesticides, herbicides, psychiatric drugs, AIDs drugs, immune assault from excessive vaccination, flame retardants, Tylenol, aspartame and the list goes on. A few “causes” and lots of “helpers” in other words.
It also appears that acetominophen (Tylenol), commonly recommended for infant fevers or localized vaccine reactions or pain associated with vaccinations, destroys glutathione production. Glutathione is the single most important aspect of the body’s system of detoxing heavy metals. Oops.
Kelly
Thanks for the information on, Ed. Wow, I can’t beleive that one poor girl died.
We recently wrote an article on vaccines at Brain Blogger. A recent vaccine was created to help prevent the HPV virus in girls. But with how little it really does and with the toxic substances that have been proven to be in vaccinations, is it worth it?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly
Dona Wheeler
Within the sate of Virginia, in the year 2010, it will be a law that a young girl has to be vaccinated with Gardacil[sp sorry], while we already have some young girls experiencing major issues, we must use caution. Studies are not mature enough to give us the whole picture, and even if it is just 1 young lady who has issues related to this vaccine, it must be halted.Not only is a prescious life altered, but it ultimatly becomes a liability to the taxpayers, to society as a whole. At 56 years of age, my health is in extreame danger, because of mercury fillings that were activated in the mid 80’s. WE ARE JUST BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND THE DANGERS OF THIS CHEMICAL. We no longer, afford to NOT question everything that goes into our body and have the right to refuse, what we know could have negitive results.
WAKE UP!
AA
Donna,
I live in Virginia and had no idea this law had been passed. Great state we live in with the already passed extremely regressive mental health commitment laws.
Can you email me at dem8899 at gmail.com? Obviously substitute the @ symbol for “at” and eliminate the spaces.