Autism + Vaccines = Tax Dollars

We are on the verge of a welfare disaster in this
country. Eighty percent of autistic children are under
the age of 17. In a few short years, the states are
going to be forced to provide support for an
overwhelming number of disabled autistic adults. “The
costs will be in the trillions,” according to Ann
Dachel.

Ann should know, she is a special education teacher, a
member of the National Autism Association, and the
mother of a boy with autism and a daughter who
developed epilepsy after receiving a Hepatitis B
vaccine.

Thimerosal is a mercury based preservative that for
many years was added to childhood vaccines to boost
drug company profits. In the 1990's the CDC added
more and more Thimerosal containing vaccines to the
mandatory vaccine schedule without adding up the
cumulative amounts of mercury that children were
receiving from the vaccines.

Finally, in 1999, after watching the dramatic autism
and other neurological disorders, officials at the CDC
and FDA realized that a fully vaccinated infant was
receiving up to 125 times what the EPA considered safe
for mercury exposure.

Because half the officials involved were on payrolls
of the drug companies they were charged to regulate,
they have never ordered the pharmaceutical industry to
stop using Thimerosal. In fact, the product is still
used in some vaccines. Last year's flu vaccine had a
mercury content eight times the EPA safe limit and it
was recommended for six-month-old babies and pregnant
women.

The generation of children poisoned by vaccines during
the 1990s is now reaching puberty and if the Bush
administration is successful in blocking lawsuits
against the vaccine makers that caused this epidemic
of neurological disorders, tax payers will be left
holding the bag and a heavy bag it will be.

The theory of mercury toxicity and autism is not
promoted by parents only. Its been verified by such
esteemed biochemists as Andrew Hall Cutler, PhD and
Boyd Haley, the chemistry department chair at the
University of Kentucky. A study by Bernard et al
titled "Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning"
documents about 100 matching symptoms.

The transcript of a closed meeting in 1999 that was
leaked to the press, attended by officials from drug
companies and the CDC and FDA, reveals how the 52
vaccine policymakers at the meeting discussed ways to
deal with statistics showing that children given
mercury in vaccines had a much higher rate of autism,
attention deficit and other disorders.

On August 18, 2003, Dr Leonard G Horowitz, warned
members of the congressional committee at a Government
Reform Hearing on Vaccines as a Risk Factor For
Autism, "the great and grave likelihood that disease
prevention through vaccinations is violently
backfiring-dramatically increasing mortality and
morbidity especially among America's youngest
citizens."

Horowitz cited the dangers of our nation's "most
established, generally accepted, public health
practice of vaccination, and its links to skyrocketing
rates of autism and brain damage in children."

This public health professional by training, and
independent investigator with expertise in medical
sociology and infectious disease research, told
Congress, "I have unfortunately, over the past two
decades, grown accustomed to instances of poor
decision-making, gross negligence, and downright
cover-ups in safety oversight and pharmaceutical
industry control in the vaccine arena," Horowitz said.

In 2002, the research team of David and Mark Geier,
released a study based on tens of millions of doses of
vaccines given to children in the US during the 1990s,
that presented the first epidemiologic evidence that
associated the increase in thimerosal from vaccines
with neurodevelopmental disorders.


Professor Lynn Adams, of Radford University, a
speech-language pathologist who specializes in autism,
says a 1999 study determined that the average child
received 33 doses of 10 different vaccines by the age
5. She claims the multiple shots could "flip a genetic
switch" in children predisposed to autism.

Lisa Blakemore-Brown, a Psychologist in the UK, also
maintains that Thimerosal is the cause of autism, and
suspects it is also the culprit involved in a wide
variety of other health problems showing up in
children these days.

According to Blakemore, the current autism epidemic
did not occur earlier because children "were given
single vaccines with single amounts of mercury,” she
says, “but with the introduction of triple vaccines
the amount of mercury contained within the
preservative was multiplied and the cumulative effects
are only just now being discovered by the public," she
adds.



Parents Struggle With The Burden

Laura Bono is the mother of an autistic child and she
wants the public to consider the latest research
pointing to the mercury-vaccine link. For instance,
researcher, Mady Hornig, recently announced the
results of a study where mice were given Thimerosal at
the level of the childhood immunization schedule and
began exhibiting autistic behavior.

Laura cites a study where toxicologist, Dr Jill James,
a former FDA researcher, found a problem with autistic
children's methylation which made it difficult for
their bodies to rid themselves of mercury. Laura
notes the findings of Dr Richard Deth, that once in
the body, Thimerosal shuts down the detoxifying
methylation process.

Laura reveals how her son Jackson experienced a four
month regression beginning days after receiving shots.
He received HiB (with 25 mcg. of mercury), DT (with 25
mcg. of mercury), Oral Polio, and
Measles-Mumps-Rubella. All totaled, he received 50
mcg. of mercury, three dead viruses and four live
viruses. The 50 mcg. of mercury was on top of the 75
mcg. of mercury he had already received in his first
year of life through one DPT and two other DT shots.
The 50 mcg. of mercury he received in one day was 44
times the EPA exposure limit. He would need to weigh
550 lbs. on that day to process that much mercury. He
weighed just 25 lbs. The total amount of mercury from
2 months old to 16 months was 139 times the
recommended EPA exposure levels.

My outgoing, social, verbal child was a shell of his
old self, Laura said, Jackson’s body was still here.
But his personality – what made Jackson his smart,
loving self – was gone. The sick body replaced the
well one. The sleeping child was replaced by one who
would awake startled after a few hours and not go back
to sleep all night. The one who had a healthy appetite
was replaced by one who became picky and whittled his
foods down to one or two. The happy child was replaced
by an unhappy one. The child who at one time didn’t
miss a thing and was the life of the room became
distant and preferred to be alone. The one who was
developmentally ahead of the crowd began making
strange noises and exhibiting odd behaviors. The child
God gave us was gone, Laura said.



Andrian Prokofiew of New Jersey, has a son who was
developing normally until he acquired autism at 17
months after receiving 20 some vaccines containing
Thimerasol. Within weeks of the last three
vaccinations given in the same visit, "he lost all
speech for 3 years, did not even look at me or know
who I was. He screamed for two weeks, his ears turned
red, his eyes dilated and he began to spin, flap his
hands and bang his head," she said.

It took more than 3 years to find out what happened to
him medically and Andrian says she was horrified to
find out the pharmaceutical companies gave bonus
dollars for each vaccine given.

"Words alone cannot express how devastating this
disorder is for the family and child, emotionally as
well as financially," she said.

Dr Allen Clark, a licensed physician for 30 years, has
a son who developed severe neurodevelopmental symptoms
(diagnosed as Asperger’s an autism spectrum disorder)
at age 7½ after receiving a routine influenza vaccine
containing 25 micrograms of Thimerosal, a dose which
the EPA would calculate that would be safe only for a
550 pound adult. The doctor's son weighed only 50
pounds at the time he was vaccinated.

Nancy and Tim Hokkanen are parents of Andy Hokkanen,
age 6. Andy was exposed to mercury before birth from
his mother's tooth fillings, which are 50% mercury,
and from RhoGam shots for Rh factor incompatibility.
After birth Andy also received Thimerosal from the
mandated childhood vaccinations.

Tim's health insurance has covered much the cost of
behavioral therapy for Andy but for about 9 months
they were on Medical Assistance, which picked up many
co-pays. They estimate that their insurance was billed
about $100,000 for therapy so far.

Linda Weinmaster has a 13 year old son who also met
with mercury poisoning before birth in the form the a
mercury-containing RhoGAM shot that Linda received
during her 28th week of pregnancy along with his
childhood vaccines. He now suffers from a host of
medical problems that require care.

Linda tell how her son's medications cost over $6,500
per month. Right now, insurance covers his meds less
deductible but not his vitamins which run about $300
per month.


Kendra Pettengill is a single widowed mother of a
child with Autism, and Veteran of the United States
Air Force.

Kendra is annoyed that anyone would believe that there
is not an epidemic in autism and claim that it
previously went undiagnosed. “The claim is better
diagnosis,” she says, “as if parents, teachers, and
doctors 10 or 20 years ago wouldn’t have noticed our
spinning, rocking, flapping, head banging,
self-biting, children who can’t speak and live in
their own little worlds.”

“It is an insult, a slap in the face to parents to
claim it is only better diagnostics that recognized
our children,” Kendra notes, “A parent 10 years ago
would have been just as terror stricken by their
child’s condition as I was and would have demanded a
reason just as I did.”

Kendra’s insurance company will not pay for her
daughter’s medical therapy, the diet, or ABA therapy.
In fact, once Autism is diagnosed they can refuse to
pay for a doctors visit for the flu if your doctor
checks the little Autism box on your insurance sheet,
Kendra says.

“Every organization I contacted denied me assistance
as they say my $30,000 a year income is too much to
qualify,” Kendra said, “A good solid ABA program can
cost more than that, per year,” she added.

“I have sold my house, spent my retirement, lost my
medical insurance,” Kendra says, “all to save my child
from a life of hopelessness.”

According to Kendra, her entire family is affected by
her daughter‘s autism, “my parents even sold their
house and moved by us to help out,” she said.

Bob Ashburn and his wife Jamie are from Ohio and they
have two children with autism spectrum disorder.

Their son, Kyle, who is now 9, was the first to be
diagnosed with autism. In many respects they say he
was the perfect baby because he was so easy to get
along with and yet there was something strange about
him that they couldn’t pinpoint. They originally
thought that Kyle might be deaf.

When he was about 15 months old, the family was eating
at McDonalds when an alarm went off. Everyone in the
place reacted to the noise except Kyle, he just kept
sat there eating his French Fries.

At first the Ashburns thought their daughter Kris, was
just shy, and had strange habits, like regular hand
washing and needing everything to be consistent. For
instance, she needs to sit in the same seat in the car
and needs to sleep with her same stuffed animals each
night.

Kris is now 14 years old and is very artistically
talented and has a great reading level. She can handle
regular school but she really needs to have time to
herself when she gets home and usually hides in either
the bathroom or her bedroom for about an hour reading
before she can face the world again.

The Ashburns worry about what kind of future their
children will have, especially Kyle who has very few
social skills and so many post-reactions to any
interactions of a negative sort with people that they
don’t know how he can live in society.

When Kyle and Kris get upset they become violent and
hit their parents, so the Ashburns have had to change
their entire lifestyles so that everything is as
consistent as possible and that transitions are made
with lots of preparation.

Nothing, not even a quick shopping trip for a carton
of milk, they say, can be done on the spur of the
moment without some sort of violent reaction from
either one or both of the children.

Jennifer Thompson tells how for a period of time, her
autistic Zack developed OCD type behaviors about his
clothing. "He would only wear certain clothes. No
long sleeved shirts, only long pants, and they had to
be tucked in!. He would only wear shirts that had
buttons. This was an obsession. You did not dare
think you could make him do otherwise or he would go
into an extreme meltdown. And I know most parents out
there understand what a ‘meltdown’ is."

According to Lauro Bono, "What is measurable is the
financial toll that this medical crisis takes on
families. After the vaccines at 16 months old,
Jackson’s medical and therapy needs began taking every
bit of money we had saved or ever would have saved."

"The total we have paid for Jackson’s medical,
nutritional and private therapy expenses so far," she
says, "is roughly $685,000 since August 1990. That is
approximately $53,000 per year."

In addition to medical costs, most autistic children
can not be left alone and must be looked after and
cared for non-stop every day of the year. Unless these
kids and their families get the financial help that
they deserve from the vaccine makers, the entire
burden will eventually fall to the tax payers and the
cost will reportedly exceed $2 million dollars per
child.

Maybe that will make people wake up and listen.

Evelyn Pringle
epringle05@yahoo.com

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