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Thimerosal in
Childhood Vaccines, Neurodevelopment Disorders, and Heart
Disease in the U.S.
by Mark R
Geier, MD., PhD and David Geier Journal Of American Physicians
and Surgeons AAPS
Spring 2003
Volume 8 Number 1 [Thanks to Paul Shapiro.]
http://www.jpands.org/vol8no1/geier.pdf
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org
In the United
States, a tragic and massive autism epidemic is currently
underway.... along with other neurodevelopmental disorders such
as speech disorders, attention deficit syndrome, developmental
delays, etc. Our best estimates are that thimerosal has
contributed to about 75% of these cases of neurodevelopmental
disorders while the MMR contributed to about 15%.... Yet, in
2003, three manufactures of childhood vaccines still are being
made with full doses of thimerosal. These are as follows:
Diphtheria-Tetanus-acellular-Pertussis (DTaP) manufactured by
Aventis-Pasteur in multi-dose vials contains 25 micrograms of
mercury, Haemophilus-influenza-Type b (HibTITTER) in multi-dose
vials manufactured by Wyeth contains 25 micrograms of mercury,
and pediatric hepatitis B vaccine manufactured by Merck contains
12.5 micrograms of mercury. These vaccines represent
approximately half of the childhood vaccines currently available
for use in the United States.... Additionally, influenza
vaccines contain 25 micrograms of mercury preservative.
Letter From Mercury Researchers to Sen. Hillary Clinton
Dear Senator
Hillary Clinton:
We understand that you have been given a copy of our recently
published paper in the Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons implicating thimerosal as having caused
neurodevelpmental disorders in children.
Dr. Mark Geier
has testified before the Institute of Medicine of the United
States' National Academy of Sciences on four occasions regarding
vaccine policy, as well as before the U.S. House of
Representatives Committee on Government Reform and has been
accepted as an expert witness on vaccines in Federal, State,
Canadian, and English Courts. He is board certified physician
licensed to practice medicine in Maryland and Virginia.
He has worked at
the National Institutes of Health for 10 ten years and has been
a professor at the Johns Hopkins University and at the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences. He has published
over 70 scientific articles, several of which have received
national and international press coverage. David Geier is
currently a graduate student at the National Institutes of
Health, and has been the president of MedCon, Inc for the past 4
years providing consultation in cases involving vaccines. He has
recently authored over 30 scientific articles on vaccine safety,
efficacy and policy. We have been told that you seek our help in
determining what should be done with regard to childhood
neurodevelopmental disorders and vaccines as it applies to the
National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVCIP), and
contemplated legislation to improve the Program.
We hope the
following will be of help to you in your work on this matter: In
the United States, a tragic and massive autism epidemic is
currently underway. The peer-reviewed scientific/medical
literature, (including a recent publication in The Journal of
the American Medical Association), indicates that the prevalence
of autism was approximately 1 per 2,500 children in the
mid-1980s, while by the mid-1990s the prevalence of autism
reached as high as 1 per 300 children, and some now have found
that the prevalence of autism in U.S. children may be as high as
approximately 1 per 150 children. These statistics are even more
troubling considering that autism has been reported in the
scientific/medical literature to effect males at least 5 times
higher than females, therefore, presently, autism may effect as
many as 1 in 30 male children. It also must be kept in mind that
autism is only one of the most severe manifestations of autistic
spectrum disorders, which also manifests in other
neurodevelopmental disorders such as speech disorders, attention
deficit syndrome, developmental delays, etc. For example, the
2001 U.S. Department of Education statistics showed in children
born in 1983 there were a total of 7,801 cases of speech or
language impairment. Among children born in 1994, this number
had risen to 211,984 cases (an approximately 30-fold increase).
In children born in 1983, there were a total of 2,100 cases of
autism. Among children born in 1994, this number had risen to
8,325 cases (an approximately 4-fold increase). Eli Lilly
who has just come out with a new drug (Strattera) for the
treatment of autistic spectrum disorders has estimated its drug
will be of use to 5 to 7% of the current U.S. childhood
population! It is ironic to note that this is the same Eli Lilly
Company who makes
thimerosal, the mercury preservative found in childhood
vaccines, that is the apparent cause of the majority of
childhood autistic spectrum disorders in the first place.
In order to
determine the annual number of neurodevelopmental disorders
there were in the United States, we analyzed the United States
Department of Education data from their 2001 Report. This data
provides a breakdown on the total number of children in each age
group from 6 to 22 years old in U.S. Public Schools that have
various childhood disorders.
In order to
determine the number of children with neurodevelopmental
disorders in U.S. Public Schools, we analyzed the total number
of children with speech or language impairments (speech
disorders) and autism. We also believe that those with
developmental delays may also provide useful information on
children with neurodevelopmental disorders in U.S. Public
Schools, but at the present time this is a new category and
limited reporting among children 6 to 9 years-old has occurred.
In analyzing the U.S. Department of Education data, we analyzed
the prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders within in each
childhood cohort analyzed (i.e. children 6 years-old in this
report that was tabulated during the 1999-2000 school year were
assumed to be born in the 1994 birth cohort). The numbers of
neurodevelopmental disorders in this report are as follows for
the following birth years:
1989
Autism = 5,223 cases
Speech Disorders = 72,250 cases
1990
Autism = 5,864 cases
Speech Disorders = 110,737 cases
1991
Autism = 7,020 cases
Speech Disorders = 157,790 cases
Developmental Delay = 1,027 cases
1992
Autism = 7,838 cases
Speech Disorders = 191,674 cases
Developmental Delay = 3,103 cases
1993
Autism = 8,769 cases
Speech Disorders = 213,747 cases
Developmental Delay = 5,153 cases
1994
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
This data shows that there has been a remarkable rise in the
prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders among children born
to cohorts since 1989 and even before that. This data also
illustrates the fact that children diagnosed with
neurodevelopmental disorders require a significant period
post-vaccination to be diagnosed with neurodevelopmental
disorders.
Therefore, data
regarding the more current prevalence of neurodevelopmental
disorders is not available, but in order to estimate more
current projections of the prevalence of neurodevelopmental
disorders in U.S. children, we assumed that the prevalence of
neurodevelopmental disorders did not increase since the 1994
birth cohort, (this is almost certainly an underestimate). The
projected data would be as follows for those that may have had
their three-year statute of limitations run before the National
Vaccine Injury Compensation Act:
1995
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
1996
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
1997
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
1998
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
1999
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
2000
Autism = 8,325 cases
Speech Disorders = 211,984 cases
Developmental Delay = 10,021 cases
Total Cases Excluded From the NVCIP (1989 through 2000)
Autism = 92,989 cases
Speech Disorders = 2,230,086 cases
Developmental Delay = 79,430 cases
Overall = 2,402,505 cases
Our assumptions as to the prevalence of neurodevelopmental
disorders in children are fairly reasonable because the amount
of mercury that children have received from thimerosal has at
least stayed the same, and perhaps even increased. The amount of
mercury that children receive from thimerosal contained in
childhood vaccines is of importance to this issue because we
have had accepted for publication three peer-reviewed
scientific/medical publications showing a direct overall and
dose-response relationship between the amount of mercury from
thimerosal children received and the incidence of
neurodevelopmental disorders and we have several more studies on
the subject in various states of submission or preparation. We
have concluded in our studies that a causal relationship exists
between mercury from thimerosal in childhood vaccines and
neurodevelopmental disorders.
We have also had a peer-reviewed paper accepted for publication
which showed that the MMR live virus vaccine may have also
contributed to the ongoing epidemic of autism. Our best
estimates are that the thimerosal contributed to about 75% of
the cases of neurodevelpmental disorders while the MMR
contributed to about 15%. The remaining 10% of the cases were
related to mercury in Rhogam, a shot given to Rh-negative women,
and to other sources of neurotoxicity. In 1999, the American
Academy of Pediatrics recommended that thimerosal be removed
from all childhood vaccines. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine
also recommended that all childhood vaccines be made free of
thimerosal and they stated that only a few doses of childhood
vaccine containing mercury preservative remained on physician's
shelves. At a hearing in December of 2002, before Congressman
Burton's House Committee on Government Reform, government
officials testified that thimerosal had been removed from all
childhood vaccines. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
A review of the
2003 Physician's Desk Reference shows that three manufactures of
childhood vaccines still are being made with full doses of
thimerosal. These are as follows:
Diphtheria-Tetanus-acellular-Pertussis (DTaP) manufactured by
Aventis-Pasteur in multi-dose vials contains 25 micrograms of
mercury, Haemophilus-influenza-Type b (HibTITTER) in multi-dose
vials manufactured by Wyeth contains 25 micrograms of mercury,
and pediatric hepatitis B vaccine manufactured by Merck contains
12.5 micrograms of mercury. These vaccines represent
approximately half of the childhood vaccines currently available
for use in the United States.
Additionally, influenza vaccines while not officially part of
the childhood vaccine schedule are being recommended for most
children. Influenza vaccines contain 25 micrograms of mercury
preservative. Incidentally, the fact that influenza vaccine is
not formally part of the childhood vaccination schedule prevents
those children who have severe adverse reactions from the
vaccine from being able to seek compensation under the Vaccine
Compensation Program. Also, Tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccine that
is recommended for administration to children 7 years-old and
older also still contains 25 micrograms of mercury.
It is our
position that all children who have autistic spectrum disorders
due to immunizations should be allowed to seek compensation both
from the Vaccine Compensation Program and, if they so elect,
from
civil court remedies as well. We think it is totally unfair that
these innocent children should be prevented from seeking either
or both remedies because the public and physicians only recently
have begun to become aware that these children were damage from
the thimerosal in childhood vaccines.
We think that
the current three year stature of limitations should be waived
to allow these innocent victims to be allowed to seek both
governmental and civil remedies for the debilitating disorder
from which they currently suffer, from no-fault of their own. We
also feel that the government should be required to conduct an
effective publicity campaign aimed at physicians and parents so
that the families of all victims are made aware of the remedies
available to them.
It is obvious from the relatively small number of thimerosal
cases currently filed before the Vaccine Compensation Program,
(around 2000-3000 cases) as compared to the much larger number
of children who may be eligible for such compensation, (around
25,000 cases, from the data shown above for autism alone in the
past three years) that most who are eligible even under the
currently restrictive statute of limitations, (three years from
the discovery of the injury), are unaware of the fact that they
are eligible under the program. Finally, we plead with all
involved authorities to remove mercury from all vaccines
immediately.
The current
epidemic of autism may well be the greatest iatrogenic epidemic
in history. The damage already done to our society is already in
the trillions of dollars. The damage of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, and that of the AIDS epidemic pale when compared to the
current epidemic of autism. All of us alive will have to bear
its effects both in the lifetime care of the damaged children
and the loss of what they otherwise might have contributed to
our society.
We are very familiar with the National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program having served as expert witnesses and
consultants in approximately 100 cases before the program. We
have done a lot of work with Congressman Burton's Committee on
these matters. If we can be of any further help to you in this
critical matter, we would be happy to talk to or meet with you
or your staff.
We appreciate
your efforts on behalf of our children in this important matter
and we look forward to the opportunity to be of further help to
you.
Sincerely,
Mark R. Geier, MD, Ph.D.
David A. Geier | 