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Autism and Vaccines

by Tim O'Shea, DC

http://www.mercola.com/2001/mar/7/autism_vaccines.htm

This article is excerpted from Dr. O'Shea's forthcoming third edition of the Sanctity of Human Blood.

Perhaps one of the most shocking pieces ever to appear on television this past April: a six-hour taping of a Congressional investigation into the relationship between vaccines and autism among American children. This footage appeared on C-SPAN and was then archived on their website for a entire month.

On April 6, 2000 Rep. Dan Burton convened the Congressional hearing in which parents repeatedly told similar stories - how their normally developing babies, after MMR or DPT vaccinations, began displaying autistic behaviors, conditions that are often permanent.

Happy, bright children were suddenly losing their abilities to learn, communicate or even recognize their parents.

Amazing testimony was given by experts in the field of autism:

Mary Megson,MD,

Explained how autism has gone from being rare (about one incident per 10,000 children in 1978), to epidemic proportions in 2000 AD:

one case in every 300-500 children in many areas!

Megson's research has shown total deficiency of vitamin A in almost all autistic children.

What depletes the body of vitamin A at 15 months?

The MMR vaccine.

In addition, Megson found that pertussis toxin from the DPT shot disrupted a certain protein that is necessary for retinal formation. This would account for the prevalence of night-blindness and loss of 3D vision so common among autistics.

John O'Leary,PhD

A world-class researcher and molecular biologist from Ireland, using state-of-the-art sequencing technology, showed how he had found the measles virus in the gut of 96% of autistic children, compared to 6.6% in normal children. This virus did not come from the natural disease, but from the measles vaccine.

Dr. O'Leary found measles virus present in 75% of children with Crohn's disease. Crohn's has traditionally been an intestinal disease of adults, following years of dietary abuse. Its appearance in children is a new event, and Dr. O'Leary's work points to the measles virus from vaccines as the likely cause.

V. Singh, MDM

A specialist from Utah State who has studied over 400 cases of autism, found that these children had experienced an autoimmune episode, in which their own bodies had been made to attack the linings of their nervous systems. Dr. Singh characterized the epidemic as a "hyperimmune response to the measles virus."

He stated that 55% of the families said that autism appeared soon after an MMR shot, and that 33% of families said it appeared soon after a DPT shot.

Such neurologic damage is a well-established side-effect of the mercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde used in these vaccines.

Andrew Wakefield, MD

A brilliant researcher from the UK, noted an almost 100% incidence of "lymphoid nodular hyperplasia" or swollen lumps throughout the intestinal tissue of autistics. Such a condition is rare in normal children. Intestinal pathology is characteristic of the autistic child, and the condition generally follows soon after the MMR shot.

Dr. Wakefield explained that as the fragile, newborn intestine cannot function because of its swollen condition, undigested toxins from vaccines and drugs are allowed to get into the liver, which is also in a formative stage.

Liver pathology is very common among autistics. Wakefield's hypothesis is that these same "undegraded toxins," having not been halted by the intestine or the liver, as normally happens, that these toxins are then free to attack the nervous system, and that autism may well be the result.

Kathy Pratt, PhD

Director of the Indiana Center for Autism, stated that 1 in 400 children in Indiana were autistic! With 500,000 cases reported in the U.S., Dr. Pratt stated that autism is now more common than Down's syndrome. Dr. Pratt points out that autism presently may disqualify a person for medical coverage for other, unrelated conditions.

Michael Goldberg, MD

A California pediatrician and researcher, explained how it was impossible to have an epidemic based solely on genetics. That's the standard excuse the CDC and the NIH have been using to explain how autism has grown from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 300 in just 22 years.

Seeing the American democratic system in action in a live Congressional hearing, it soon becomes apparent how the control of information operates, even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence that we may well be poisoning our own children!

Colleen Boyle was there to represent the Centers for Disease Control. After stumbling through her prepared statement in which she denied any connection between autism and vaccines, Boyle stated the present incidence to be "12 in 10,000." Burton then stopped her cold by asking her one simple question:

Did she think it was a conflict of interest for the same people who were funded by the vaccine manufacturers to be on the advisory board making decisions about which vaccines should be given to American children?

Boyle was dumfounded and speechless. Burton repeated the question. Still no answer. Boyle's mute portrayal of the career bureaucrat spoke volumes.

Equally inept and ill-prepared was Deborah Hirtz, MD, representing the National Institutes of Health. Losing her place in her written statement, Hirtz forgot what she was saying, and it seemed obvious she had not written it. Finally, she just barely managed to put across what she was sent there to say - that there could be no connection between vaccines and autism, but that the NIH was "looking into it."

The NIH has already spent some $40 million per year of taxpayer money "looking into it." (Hirtz) Their answer: It needs further study. The performance of these representatives from the two government agencies who have almost sovereign power in the area of vaccines was frightening - their indifference; lack of information; condescension; and low level of intelligence.

They gave no sign of having understood one word of the critically important breakthrough research that had just been so brilliantly expounded by Drs. Megson, O'Leary, and Wakefield. This is what power looks like - people who have been in their position so long that they know they don't have to justify themselves to anyone lower down on the food chain.

Government agencies have the same answer to every problem: more committees; more money; more study; and more meetings. Meanwhile, 22 years have gone by, and all these people say is "we don't know."

After 22 years and $100 million, we don't know the incidence, the cause or the cure for autism. But we'll definitely "look into it." And, oh yes, it's definitely "not vaccines."

This is the thinking that passes as logic. The key point here that no one seems to be pointing out is that research should be done before mandating a vaccine into the bloodstream of American children! You don't just start mass-injecting something into a population and then stand back and defy independent scientists to prove it isn't safe! That's exactly what we've done here.

As a nation, as a government, and as parents, Americans should be very certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that any substance being injected into an unformed little nervous system is absolutely safe and does no harm. That should be the minimum requirement.

Drs. Wakefield, O'Leary, and Megson have shown startling results from some of the only scientific research on autism and vaccines in the entire world that has not been funded by the vaccine manufacturers. This research also shows a high likelihood that MMR and DPT vaccines may cause permanent intestinal destruction, liver damage, and autism. It presents a very plausible hypothesis for the horrific increase of autism since 1978. So, until we know for certain if they're right, why are the vaccines not suspended?

Researcher Gary Null's pert answer comes swimming to the surface; "It's the money, stupid." By the end of the hearing, Burton's room was polarized into three groups: