Autism and Immunizations

Mercury is known to damage nerve cells in very low concentrations.

An article about the link between autism and immunizations in the March 10, 2006 issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows that there is a link between autism and immunizations and rates have declined since mercury has been removed from childhood vaccines.

Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines, published by doctors David and Mark Geier, shows that since mercury was removed from childhood immunizations, the increase in reported rates of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders have severely dropped by as much as 35%. Using the government's own databases, these independent researchers analyzed the connection between childhood Neurodevelopmental Disorders, including autism, and immunizations, before and after removal of mercury-based preservatives.

These studies prove there is a direct relationship between autism and immunizations because the removal of mercury from the immunizations led to a decrease in autism and ND cases.

According to a statement from the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons, or AAPS, the numbers from California show that reported autism rates hit a high of 800 in May 2003. If that trend had continued, the reports would have risen to more than 1,000 by the beginning of 2006. However, the number actually went down to 620, a real decrease of 22 %, and a decrease from the projection of 35 %.

This analysis directly contradicts 2004 recommendations of the Institute of Medicine which examined vaccine safety data from the National Immunization Program (NIP) of the CDC. While not willing to either rule out or to corroborate a relationship between autism and immunizations containing mercury, the IOM toned down its findings, and decided no more studies were needed.

“The IOM stated that the evidence favored rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal and autism, that such a relationship was not biologically plausible, and that no further studies should be conducted to evaluate it.”

As more and more immunizations were added to the mandatory schedule of vaccines for children, the dose of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal rose, so that the cumulative dose injected into babies exceeded the toxic threshold set by many government agencies, the physicians' group explained.

The concern about autism and immunizations may actually be underrated, as it is generally acknowledged that the voluntary reporting of such disorders has resulted in vast underreporting of new cases. For example, the Iowa state legislature banned thimerosal from all immunizations administered there after it documented a 700-fold increase in that state alone. California followed suit, and 32 states are considering doing so.

Up until about 1989, pre-school children were only given 3 immunizations; polio, DPT and MMR. The rate of autism skyrocketed between 1989 and 2003. Currently, there are more than a half million children in the U.S. who have autism.

By 1999, the CDC recommended a total of 22 vaccines to be given before children reach the first grade, including Hepatitis B, which is given to newborns within the first 24 hours of birth. Many of these vaccines contained mercury. In the 1990s, approximately 40 million children were injected with mercury-containing immunizations. The cumulative amount of mercury being given to children in this number of vaccines would be an amount 187 times the EPA daily exposure limit.

In 1999, on the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics and U.S. Public Health Service, thimerosal was removed from most childhood vaccines as a "precautionary" measure. There was no admission of any causal link between autism and immunizations.

The Geiers conclude that mercury continues to be a concern, as it is still added to some of the most commonly-used immunizations, such as those for flu:

"Despite its removal from many childhood vaccines, thimerosal is still routinely added to some formulations of influenza vaccine administered to U.S. infants, as well as to several other vaccines (e.g. tetanus-diphtheria and monovalent tetanus) administered to older children and adults. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) retreated from the stated 1999 goal of the AAP and the PHS to remove thimerosal from U.S. vaccines as soon as possible. As a result, assessing the safety of TCVs [thimerosal-containing vaccines] is a matter of significant importance."

CDC is working with the National Institutes of Health on a study to evaluate whether the MMR vaccine is linked with developmental regression, which occurs in a subset of children with autism. Publication of the findings are yet to be determined.

CDC is working with the National Institutes of Health on a study to evaluate whether the MMR vaccine is linked with developmental regression, which occurs in a subset of children with autism. Publication of the findings are yet to be determined.

The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) was used to screen for possible associations between exposure to vaccines containing thimerosal and a variety of renal, neurologic, and developmental problems. In the first phase of this study, CDC used data from the two VSD managed care organizations (MCOs) with automated outpatient data (where more subtle effects of mercury toxicity might be seen). The CDC and VSD researchers found statistically significant associations between thimerosal and two neurodevelopmental disorders—language delays and tics. However, the associations were weak and were not consistent between the two MCOs. No association was shown with autism. In the second phase of the study, CDC researchers looked at data from a third MCO with similar automated vaccination and outpatient data to see if these findings could be repeated. Analyses using the same methods as in the first two MCOs did not confirm results seen in the first phase. The results were published in Pediatrics (2003;112:1039-48).