OLEAN -- The federal government frequently takes a licking in these pages, but late in February it finally made one small decisive step toward helping the children of America. The decision, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drew little attention in the mainstream media, but it deserves praise nonetheless.
It also deserves a followup warning that the action will be useless without more tough decision-making in favor of openness and access to vaccination records.
The CDC -- under the promising direction of Dr. Julie L. Gerberding -- at long last decided to separate the national immunization program from the branch that monitors vaccine safety and the risks of serious side effects.
This may sound humdrum to older readers who recall the polio and smallpox shots of their childhood -- and maybe a few more inoculations -- as non-controversial events to be celebrated by relieved parents.
But today's average infant must receive, for all sorts of sicknesses, as many as 35 mandatory inoculations and oral applications of powerful vaccines before the age of 5 -- some of them within hours of birth and with little regard to the sensitive neonatal immune system.
Critics of the powerful federal vaccine machine have long claimed the zealous advocacy of federal physicians and scientists -- necessary to improve disease-prevention efficiency by inoculating as many infants and toddlers possible -- easily overwhelms the growing collective voice of parents and doctors who want better monitoring and investigation of the serious adverse reactions many vaccines trigger.
The intense and growing controversy won't go away, despite the fervent wishes of many federal health officials.
This increasingly acerbic argument pits establishment health officials against parents of autistic children -- and a growing number of lawmakers on federal and state levels -- who claim there's an obvious link between a mercury preservative used in some vaccines to increase their shelf life and the astounding increase in cases of childhood autism.
Mercury is a very dangerous element, one of the most toxic known to man. There's so much of it the atmosphere now -- mostly spread by the emissions of coal-fired utility plants -- that pregnant mothers in several states are warned to eat only so much fish.
About 40 tons of mercury each year waft into the air, come down in lakes and rivers through rain, wind or gravity, and accumulate in fish that are higher up the food chain.
Too much mercury consumed by pregnant mothers can cross the placenta and cause brain damage, developmental problems and partial deterioration of the embryo's nervous system. The CDC itself estimates as many as 375,000 newborns a year are at risk of neurological problems associated with mercury exposure in the womb.
The mercury preservative used in many pediatric vaccines -- thimerosal -- also serves as an anti-contaminant and is popular with vaccine manufacturers because it allows a syringe to be inserted in a vial over and over again and remain sterile with little fear of infection. Rocketing rates of autism, however, have focused expanding criticism of the compound from parents and scientists who believe it triggers brain inflammation and resultant autism in some babies.
The growth of autism -- which seems to shut down the emotional and intellectual development of children and results in pronounced learning disorders -- seems close to spinning out of control. The diagnosed condition increased 634 percent in California between 1987 and 2002, and nearly doubled in just the last three years of that period. If you lived in California in 1987, you had a one in 10,000 chance for your child to be diagnosed with autism. Now, it is one in 150. It is now more prevalent in that state than childhood cancer, Down's Syndrome or diabetes.
Across the nation, by some estimates, there is now a doubling of autism cases every four years. California is not alone. Federal Department of Education numbers indicate Ohio had only 22 cases of autism reported in 1992. By 2002, that had increased to 3,057. In Illinois, that parallel decade showed an increase from five autism cases to 3,802. All states showed increases in that time period of at least 500 percent.
Nationally, that comfortable one in 10,000 chance of autism that used to exist changed to a Department of Health and Human Services estimate of one in 167.
No one really knows why, but many doctors, scientists, parents and medical researchers noticed the onset of autism often seemed to follow the initial applications of vaccines that contained thimerosal.
Around the turn of the millennium, Congress got involved. The House Government Reform Committee took a long look at the lack of adequate research into a possible relationship between the autism increase and pediatric vaccines. The Republican chairman, Dan Burton of Indiana, until then a conservative backer of establishment medicine, reported numerous conflicts of interest exist between federal research units, government policy-makers, regulators, the various health agencies and the vastly influential vaccine manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies who seem to sway federal health agency decisions regarding vaccines.
Burton's panel particularly noted the increasing numbers of vaccines American children have been given in the last 20 years and the unexplained rise in autism in this country.
Another Republican, Dave Weldon of Florida, himself a respected physician, began to look at the rising numbers. He grew more and more concerned with what he learned.
About two years ago, a former CDC researcher published a study that seemed to show no statistical link between thimerosal and autism. About nine months ago, the prestigious Institute of Medicine -- which has incredible national clout on health issues -- appeared to back that up by rejecting what vaccine safety advocates consider emerging evidence of a causal relationship.
Barbara Loe Fisher, founder of the private, non-profit parental advocacy group called the National Vaccine Information Center -- the nation's largest such organization -- called the IOM report "beyond belief" and "a case of political immunology masquerading as real science."
She accused government policy-makers of being influenced by "industry profits" and said the IOM, with the report, "takes a step toward weakening its reputation as an independent body capable of making an objective scientific analysis." She claimed the IOM was overly influenced by pro-vaccine zealots in HHS, CDC and the National Institutes of Health.
Congressman Weldon and several parent groups used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain an earlier and unpublished version of the 2003 "no link" study. Sure enough, the earlier findings suggested a relationship between some developmental delay in children and inoculation with thimerosal-containing vaccines. Weldon told The New York Times -- one of the few newspapers giving the February CDC policy change proper play -- the first report had been "watered down."
Weldon, last summer, made a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives in which he portrayed himself as a vaccine advocate, but called the controversial IOM report "not an exercise in discovering the truth." He said instead it drew "premature conclusions" and appeared to have been prepared by someone "more interested in a public relations campaign, rather than sound science."
The "greatest outrage," he concluded, was it called "for the halt of further research" on the matter. He warned that "the autism community is the 900-pound gorilla" that won't just go away and leave Capitol Hill alone. Furthermore, Weldon noted the existence of transcripts of a private session in which CDC staffers shared the 2003 report's initial causal link findings with vaccine industry representatives and other government officials. Now there's the public interest being protected, isn't it? A bunch of insiders trading off the safety and well-being of American children.
Last week, Weldon told The New York Times, "You can't have an organization whose primary charge is getting kids vaccinated also have credibility in looking at side effects. Their primary mission is getting lots of kids vaccinated. I don't think they should be the same people looking at safety." He also introduced a bill in the House which would -- by law -- eliminate mercury from all childhood vaccines.
Even the IOM seems to be coming around. In mid-February, a panel of medical experts it assembled recommended the CDC ease restrictions on use of its closely guarded Vaccine Safety Datalink -- a database that contains more than 7 million medical records relating to immunization and adverse reactions. Researchers interested in the field have had to go through incredible red tape to gain access to the records in the Datalink information bank. Easier access is key to informed research on the subject of vaccine safety. The CDC indicated it would comply.
We'll see.
Dr. Gerberding, who seems not as obstinate as some previous CDC officials on the subject of vaccine safety, said that making the safety branch independent of the immunization advocacy branch was designed to increase the "capability and credibility" of the CDC. We'll wait and see on that one, too.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 1 2005 |