Autism’s False Scientists

The global epidemic of autism has exploded. In March 2013, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the USA declared that it now affects 1 in 50 children in the USA. When compared to the rate of 1 in 14,857 in 1970 in Wisconsin, the terrifying rate of growth vividly stands out. One case of autism is now diagnosed every 20 minutes making this the fastest growing epidemic in history, making the combined growth of AIDS, cancer, and diabetes in children pale in comparison.

Autism is a complex disability resulting in brain damage, gastrointestinal damage, sleep disorders, food sensitivities, epilepsy, immune dysfunction, self destructive behaviour patterns, repetitive behaviour, communication deficits and unresponsiveness to other people. It was first written about in a case study in 1943 by Dr Leo Kanner, who described 11 children with a condition that had never before been observed. 

The vast majority of the cases are termed regressive autism, meaning that children seem to suddenly slip into this condition after a stage of normal development. It is this form of autism that has become an epidemic. 

Doctors and medical experts baffled by the extensive physical damage noticed in autistic children say that such conditions are likely caused by toxins, particularly as these children are more susceptible and do not have the ability to excrete them. According to them, the behavioural disorders are in fact a reflection of the intense agony experienced by these children who lack the communication skills to verbally express their extreme pain and discomfort. These doctors prefer to call autism a whole body disorder. 

According to the CDC, the origin of this epidemic is a mystery. However the agency regularly takes great pains to point out through various discredited studies that it is not caused by vaccines. It also maintains that this disorder, which it terms behavioural, is genetic in origin. While examining the veracity of these claims, it would be prudent to point out that the mandate of the CDC is to ensure that all children follow the vaccine schedule. It thus suffers from a conflict of interest when it says anything about vaccines, as even a hint that vaccines are unsafe goes against its mandate. 

It was the parents who first raised the alarm as they observed their normal children react violently after one or many vaccines given at a time, then slipping into a world of their own with a completely different personality and exhibiting strange behaviours they never displayed earlier. The change was difficult not to notice and parents even had videos of their once lovely and playful children to prove their point. 

The debate picked up when researchers started comparing the disorder with symptoms of mercury poisoning. A mercury compound called thiomersal, which contains ethyl mercury, is used as a preservative in vaccines. When US politicians raised the issue in Congress, an inquiry was set in motion that revealed vaccinated children received 187.5 μg of this compound by six months and 237 μg by two years of age, clearly exceeding safe limits by a very wide margin. Ethyl mercury can be toxic even in very minute doses. It is also known that this form of mercury crosses the blood brain barrier and can remain in the brain for decades. Evidence of the parallels between mercury intoxication and autism continues to mount. 

A nervous CDC, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), spurred by the sting of the FDA Modernization Act, recommended in 1999 that mercury in vaccines be phased out as soon as possible. It was a recommendation that was never strictly followed. Stocks of vaccines with thiomersal continued to be given while they lasted. Mercury still remains as a preservative in almost all vaccines given to pregnant mothers and infants in developed nations, either as a preservative or as an excipient, and in developing countries the rule never applied. 

Thiomersal is, in fact, so toxic that according to Professor Boyd Haley, no study can ever be designed to prove it safe. As a genotoxin, mercury defies the dose makes the poison rule and is highly dangerous in minute doses. 

Recently in a great display of solidarity, the many world bodies enforcing the vaccine mandate saw to it that children will continue to receive this devastating neurotoxin in the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) treaty that tried to eliminate mercury from all products. 

In an attempt to end the debate the CDC set in motion two sets of studies. The first, called the Verstraeten study, initially found that more than 25 μg of monthly exposure of thiomersal through vaccines from one to three months could increase the chances of autism by 7.62 to 11.35 times. A blatant cover up and deliberate manipulation ensured an opposite result.  The next set of studies, called the Danish studies, ran into trouble when it emerged that the lead author, Poul Thorsen, defrauded the CDC of a considerable amount by diverting funds to himself. Dr Thorsen is now declared a fugitive by the US after a federal grand jury indicted him, and faces a life sentence if convicted. However the CDC still stands by the results of these studies, pretending that nothing ever happened. 

In the latest attempt this March, just before the start of the April Autism Awareness Month, the CDC let loose another study that only compared the antigens in vaccines, while the debate is primarily about preservatives, adjuvants, excipients, and contaminants, and flashed claims all over the globe that multiple vaccines are safe. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) also did a review of existing industry sponsored studies to claim that vaccines do not cause autism. While the latest CDC study has been found to be a rehash of an old database used in an earlier manipulated study, the IOM had emphatically declared its intention to deny the vaccine autism link when its Chief had stated in 2001 “We are never ever going to come down that it [autism] is a true side effect”. 

In the meantime, independent research into vaccines as a probable cause of autism has mounted and one researcher has compiled a formidable list of several hundred studies that detail the grave physical damage in autistic children and justify the link to vaccine adverse effects. Various vaccines like the DTaP, MMR, Hep-B, and chicken pox, have become controversial for their probable link to autism. Babies getting multiple vaccines on a single day have regressed into autism and been awarded compensation. To date, the US based National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) has awarded compensation to 85 cases of vaccine induced autism, including two recent cases in 2012. An Italian Court too has awarded compensation to an autistic child injured by the MMR vaccine. 

There has been a flurry of activities to prove that autism is genetic. This has been achieved by withdrawing all funds from vaccine autism studies and pouring them into research studying genes. Up to $27.4 million were wasted on 127 genetic studies from 2006 to March 2012, and still the “autism gene” remains elusive.  Rather, the April 2012 Joseph Baxbaum study found unexplained mutations in 800-1000 genes. 

Are genotoxins involved? Ethyl mercury is known to be a genotoxin, and so is aluminium, an adjuvant used in vaccines. The two also interact in synergistic toxicity, making them immensely more toxic when used together. Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, further adds to the toxic effects of vaccines. Vaccines also contain contaminants from various human and animal matter used. These foreign genetic materials introduced via vaccines may alter human genes in a process called “reverse transcriptase”. Human material used in vaccines is suspect also, because the body may form antibodies against them and then attack itself. 

The largest genetic study conducted so far, the Joachim Hallmayer study  in July 2011, upon 192 pairs of twins emphatically declared that autism is more environmental (62%) than genetic (38%). “We have to study both the genetics and the environment,” Hallmayer said, “If we look only at one side, I don’t think that will lead us to the right answer.” However, this very important finding has been ignored and the genetic angle continues to excite scientists drawn by the flow of research funds.

According to Professor Richard Deth,

"Perpetuating the myth of autism as a primarily genetic disorder is a disservice to those who might benefit from treatment and diverts attention from nongenetic causes."

More such misdirected efforts have blamed autism on the mothers’ age, the grandfathers’ age, the month of birth of the child, on the mothers’ history of abuse as a child, and the mothers’ history of depression, almost harking back to the dark ages of autism when mothers were blamed for being “cold” towards their children earning them the epithet “refrigerator mothers”. 

Instead of proactively reacting to this immense tragedy, the establishment has instead shielded both the vaccine industry and Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of thiomersal, by providing them immunity from law suits. Clearly false scientists are having a field day in this reckless game of hide and seek even as autism rates soar menacingly across the globe.