Of vaccines, mercury, autism and Julie Gerberding

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Editorial

former CDC head Dr. Julie Gerberding

former CDC head Dr. Julie Gerberding

We came across a post on the autism site Adventures in Autism by Ginger Taylor claiming that former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) chief Julie Gerberding, who stepped down from that agency in January of this year, has since accepted a position with public relations giant Edelman.

The Edelman website confirms this, and we quote:

Edelman has created the Global Task Force on H1N1 Influenza to help its clients and partners navigate the communications challenges associated with the potential outbreak of H1N1 flu. The task force comprises a network of public health and crisis communications specialists, including former U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who are ready to help organizations engage their internal and external stakeholders early and protect their reputations.

Perhaps this is vindication for those Gerberding critics who claimed that while she was head of CDC, her interest was more in protecting careers and reputations than in saving lives. We don’t know.

We do know that the transition back and forth between agencies in the public sector and such major industries as the oil, chemicals, food and pharmaceuticals industries supposedly regulated by those corresponding agencies has been an easy one to make of late, a situation that we find mildly upsetting. We say “mildly” because, while we could easily work ourselves into a sleepless frenzy over this, it happens all the time. That would leave us sleepless for life were we to agonize over it too much.

Gerberding has every right to represent the same large pharmaceutical companies she was accused of representing all along, and at least now her paycheck does not come directly from our taxes. (It is siphoned off, instead, via the extra healthcare costs we pay for healthcare we may or may not receive, depending upon our ability to pay for it after having supported with our taxes massive government agencies that are supposed to be guarding us. For more on these issues see the interview with a CIGNA exec and Michael Moore’s Sicko.)

Corporate vs. public interests

We wouldn’t mind the job security conferred upon the ruling elite by these arrangements nearly so much if only those public servants were more diligent in their defense of the public (as opposed to corporate) interests while serving their brief tenure in public posts. But so few of them have actually been able to switch off the defending-corporate-interests part of their personalities while allegedly serving the public.

If you read Ginger Taylor’s references to Gerberding it becomes clear that she feels intense frustration at Gerberding’s frequent calls for more research that were then followed by total inaction in instigating such research.

Taylor, meanwhile, is a Maine housewife living the daily frustration and horror of parenting a child disabled by autism. It is one thing to sit and read countless papers (as we do) trying to decipher the contradictions among research reports to arrive at some sort of informed opinion on the subject and quite another to have witnessed, as Ginger Taylor and too many other parents have, the transformation of a formerly healthy child to a sick and damaged one after receiving a shot or a series of shots.

Cause and effect are total abstractions in the first case and heartless assassins in the second. If you watched your child or spouse regress from a healthy state to an autistic or demented one, wouldn’t you too be bitter or at least hostile towards the vaccine and mercury amalgam manufacturers who continue to claim there is no relation at all to their products?

As for Gerberding, she probably makes the sort of next-door neighbor you would visit with for hours given the opportunity. But we can understand Taylor’s feelings towards her. That frustration comes through in the interview below of Julie Gerberding by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with text insertions provided by Ginger Taylor. Following that, we have also posted an interview with John F. Kennedy, Jr, who has performed extensive research on the thimerosal issue.

Thimerosal and vaccines

Thimerosal, in case you’ve forgotten, is a preservative used in many vaccines. Kennedy’s article Deadly Immunity, published in Rolling Stone and Salon.com is a must read.

While we’re on the subject of mercury and autism, we would like to add that we don’t think the thimerosal in vaccines (or that in mercury fillings, for that matter) is the sole cause of autism and other apparently mercury-related injuries and illnesses. We do believe that many individuals have been injured by the mercury in vaccinations and in mercury fillings, don’t get us wrong.

But the body is a complex organism and there are often multiple paths to the same result. A lack of vitamin D, for example, might induce similar disorders and certainly does induce asthma, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, to name just three among many. Pregnant mothers and infants have grown increasingly deficient in this important vitamin in recent years (See our piece Vitamin D, the versatile vitamin for more on that.)

Holistic approach works best

But there are other culprits as well. Aluminmum not only exacerbates the presence of mercury, but can fill in for it as a damanging agent. Fluoride is another toxin that can cause untold damage, particularly when combined with aluminum. Even monosodium glutamate, aspartame and other excitotoxins may play a role. All these toxins—mercury, aluminum, fluoride, glutamate and aspartame, as well as vitamin D deficiency—have been implicated in the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. They can also cause, in various combinations or singly, childhood-onset disorders such as autism.

For many individuals, the sheer number of vaccinations given to children these days may be the cause. Not only are the additives such as thimerosal cumulative in their effects, the assault on a young immune system that each of these vaccinations represents has to be considered cumulative as well. Then too, the measles antigen suppresses the immune system for up to several months. During this period, another vaccination that might otherwise be tolerated by a given individual may cause disastrous results.

So a holistic view of this problem really works best. For the sake of argument, if you consider health to be the absence of disease and its contributing factors, you could define health, in this context as adequate vitamin D and others and the absence of mercury, aluminum, aspartame, MSG and fluoride from the diet and the environment.

Start adding any of these toxins back in, and you dramatically increase the risk of any given child displaying autism.

So, while a given parent may witness a child becoming autistic after, say, a flu vaccination (most flu vaccines still contain mercury) that doesn’t mean another parent may not witness either a different result from mercury or a different cause of autism.

The heartbreak of autism

In any case, it certainly does not mean that any of these parents should have to put up with ridicule or indifference on the part of the medical establishment and even less so on the part of our government. And it certainly does not mean that the CDC should continue to allow thimerosal and other forms of mercury to remain in vaccines. Nor should it continue to be used in tooth fillings, for that matter.

Whereas in Europe the phrase “First, do no harm” is taken seriously, the United States has developed a different set of standards. Ours is more along the lines of “Do not interfere with business.” The health and welfare of our citizens, sadly, takes a back seat to the profits of corporations.

That situation has got to change.

As the Kennedy interview makes clear, autism is a disease with a specific set of dates. It was first described in 1943 by Dr. Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins University. Kanner had studied 11 children between 1938 and 1943, to which he ascribed his new disease.

Thimerosal was invented in the 1920s and first put into use in vaccines in the 1930s. So those who equate autism with the use of thimerosal have a solid base on which to stand. In fact, the House Government Reform Committee that studied the history of autism and thimerosal concluded in its final report, “This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin.” The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of “institutional malfeasance for self protection” and “misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”

You can read all about it here.

Editor’s note, August 13, 2009: We have added the following video (The Truth About Vaccines) from the Shoot ‘Em Up website. The clip can also be found on the Maryland Coalition for Vaccine Choice website. The people who shot the Shoot ‘Em Up documentary from which this video clip is derived produced a feature-length film on the subject. You can purchase that film on DVD from their website. Meanwhile, watch the clip here by clicking on the image below.

YouTube Preview Image

Gerberding Autism interview with Sanjay Gupta of CNN – March, 2008, edited by Ginger Taylor.


Below, the Kennedy interview with Joe Scarborough is about Kennedy’s views on autism and thimerosal, a preservative used in many vaccines. This is a subject that both Scarborough and Kennedy know much about. (Scarborough has first-hand experience with autism.)

Keep in mind too that Scarborough is an ultra-conservative, while Kennedy is—well, a Kennedy.


YouTube Preview Image

“Green Diva Mom” cures autism

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

We’ve said before that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources refuse to acknowledge vaccines as a cause of autism, the anecdotal evidence alone can be overwhelming. And that’s before we even get to those few studies that actually have addressed the issue.

Green Diva Mom Eleni P

Green Diva Mom Eleni Prokopeas

Here is the story of a mother of three whose second child became autistic after receiving his vaccinations at the age of two. It began with a high fever the night of the vaccination and went down hill from there. But despite her doctors’s inability to help her son, Eleni Prokopeas developed her own 10-step protocol to overcome autism. By the age of six, her son was functioning normally again.

Click here to hear Eleni Prokopeas tell the whole story while you browse our site. She tells how the autism came about, then about her efforts—ultimately successful—to cure it. (The audio file will open in another tab or browser. Return to this tab or browser and you can continue browsing the site while you listen.)

You can find out more about Eleni Prokopeas and her 10-step protocol for cure here.


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More deaths from “new flu”

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Swine flu spreads; another American dies

Electron micrograph of swine flu virus.

Electron micrograph of swine flu virus.

Although present dangers from swine flu may be less severe than originally feared, victims continue to die from the disease as it spreads across the globe. The latest developments place new cases in Australia, China and Japan, while new deaths linked to the disease have occurred in Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States. A Washington state man was the third confirmed casualty (more…)


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Nine dead in U.S. of swine flu

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

A Utah man who died today is the ninth U.S. victim

The worldwide death toll from swine flu had already reached 80 when a man who local officials said died of swine flu succumbed in Salt Lake City Wednesday. (more…)


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U.S. deaths from new flu reach 27

Friday, June 5th, 2009

As the “new” A(H1N1) swine flu spreads in the U.S., 13,217 cases are current in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. There were 27 U.S. deaths from the flu as of 11 am today, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. At the time of our last report on U.S. fatalities a week ago, deaths totaled 15, with 48 states and Washington, DC claiming 8,975 infections.

That gives the U.S. an increase of 4,242 cases in one week, with 12 more dead over the same period—an 80% increase in deaths for a 47% increase in cases. (more…)


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U.S. swine flu tally nears 10,000

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

15 swine-flu deaths in U.S. as of May 29

According to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data released at 11 am, Friday, May 29, the number of H1N1 (”swine flu”) cases in the U.S. is rapidly approaching the 10,000 mark. (see table) In fact, it likely will have reached that level by the time you read this, given the rate at which cases have increased over approximately the past week.

Meanwhile, health officials seem intent upon emphasizing the relatively mild symptoms of this so-called “new” or “novel” H1N1 influenza, as the CDC calls it. At the same time, the U.S. government has entered into a deal to acquire swine flu vaccine for persons it deems most worthy. (more…)


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CDC swine flu numbers not so high as expected

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Surprisingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s swine flu tally for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands does not appear to have changed much since the last time we looked. This week, the CDC changed its normal schedule of updating the figures on Friday in honor of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting yesterday. Yesterday’s figures, which are the final figure for the week, were effective as of 7:00 PM Thursday, June 25 EDT.

The U.S. is reporting 27,717 confirmed or probable swine flu cases with 127 deaths confirmed to be the result of swine flu. Wisconsin continues to lead the states with 4,273 cases reported and 4 deaths. Texas and Utah have 10 deaths apiece, while New York has 35, California 16, and Illinois has 12.


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Have U.S. swine flu infections reached 1 million cases?

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

A story by AP reporter Michael Stobbe says one U.S. official has estimated that more than one million Americans may have become infected with the novel H1N1 swine flu at this point.

Stobbe attributes the estimate to Lyn Finelli, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Finelli gave a presentation at a meeting of the vaccine advisory committee in Atlanta on Thursday. (more…)


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U.S. swine flu cases surpass 1,000,000?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

According to a posting by the Associated Press penned by Frank Jordans with the dateline Geneva, “U.S. health officials estimate the United States has passed the 1 million case mark.” The story is an interview with World Health Organization (WHO) second-in-command, Keiji Fukuda.

The wording of that story took many readers by surprise. It gave us pause, too. Finally we realized.

Health Spectator initially reported on June 25 that mathematical modeling by Lyn Finelli, an official with the CDC had projected that there might be one million swine flu infections in the U.S. at that time. So the AP and other sources are just trotting out this old figure. It does not represent a new set of figures released by any U.S. health officials, as the story seems to imply.


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Fluoride message still not getting through

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Sometimes we come across pieces in our files that never made it into “print” because they still had a few unfinished paragraphs or sentences, or maybe we just didn’t find time that week to do a final edit, after which it was forgotten. We think of them as orphans. This is one of those that we’ve come back to, finished and updated. We hope you find it useful, if much belated.

We saw it today on our own home page, right at the top of the list of the Reuters news feeds: Many Americans still do not get fluoridated water. The ensuing article quotes Dr. William Bailey of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Oral Health as bemoaning the tragedy that more Americans aren’t getting fluoridated water. Then, further down the list, we found a headline to an article on a related subject that set our hackles on end: US Mayors Agree to Phase Out Bottled Water.

Now don’t get us wrong: we’re no huge fan of bottled water. Yes, we understand that the plastic bottles are not only a huge waste-disposal problem, but generally unhealthy in their own right because of the plastic or its components leaching into the water. And so many of the commercial bottled waters are just bottled tap water sold by the likes of Coke and Pepsi anyway. (The worst of these are highly fluoridated as well.)

So we think of the American obsession with buying bottles of water as—well, misguided. It’s just one of the many things we’ve been brainwashed into doing by the corporate media. Watch enough television, and you’ll start buying bottled water too. And don’t get us started about the current practice of putting flavorings and sugar in the water and calling it a “sports drink.” (Yeah, right!)

However, one of the reasons we hate to say goodbye to bottled water is that it is the only way many Americans can get water that isn’t fluoridated, although the proposal to require fluoridation of bottled water has been put on the table.

So we couldn’t help but wax cynical when we read the following statement in the first-mentioned Reuters article about fluoridated water:

Asked if there is any responsible evidence showing negative health effects due to fluoridated water, Bailey said, “No, not at the levels that we use in community water systems.”

This statement is misleading and irresponsible. (more…)


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