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Letter to the President and Congress
The Shameful Treatment of the Autism
Epidemic by the NIH, CDC, FDA and IOM
February 9, 2004
Parents: Please email or fax your Congressman and two Senators as well as the
President (http://www.whitehouse.gov) and the members of Congress (http://www.house.gov/
and http://www.senate.gov) below and include this letter. Thank you.
Dear President George Bush, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Joseph Lieberman,
Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Robert Byrd, Senator Ted Stevens, Senator Judd
Gregg, Congressman Bill Young, Congressman David Obey, Congressman Ralph Regula,
Congressman Tom Davis, Congressman Henry Waxman, Congressman Dan Burton, Senator
Arlen Spector, Senator Tom Harkin, and Congressman Dave Weldon:
Over the past several years parents like myself have brought up the vaccine link
to autism, in particular, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and thimerosal
in the vaccines. I started The Autism Autoimmunity Project (http://autismautoimmunityproject.org)
in 1998 because we saw in the research from Vijendra Singh, PhD. and Andrew
Wakefield, MD that children with autism had tested positive for myelin basic
protein antibodies, had elevated measles antibody titers in the blood and
measles in the gut indicating that autism had an immune/gastrointestinal
dysfunction. I had gone to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1995,
1997 and 2001 and asked that the NIH would fund research that would look into
the independent research of Dr. Singh and Dr. Wakefield. To date, nothing has
been done.
In April 1999, I attended an autism conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey
where Dr. Jacqueline Bertrand of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) spoke. I mentioned this in my letter to The Lancet in the Correspondence
section of the July 2000 edition, titled "The MMR Question" (http://www.whale.to/v/gallop.html).
The CDC would not do immune blood panel tests for the children with autism
involved in their Brick, NJ study. The CDC is supposed to prevent and control
diseases but so far they have failed totally in controlling the autism epidemic
that increases exponentially year to year.
Our organization, The Autism Autoimmunity Project, has documented the autism
epidemic using the US Department of Education figures which use the same
diagnostic criterion year to year. (http://autismautoimmunityproject.org/shame.html)
From the US Department of Education figures on autism:
2000-2001
http://www.ideadata.org/tables24th/ar_aa3.htm
2001-2002
http://www.ideadata.org/tables25th/ar_aa3.htm
2002-2003
http://www.ideadata.org/tables26th/ar_aa3.htm
Dr. F. Edward Yazbak, MD a pediatrician and a scientific advisory board member
of The Autism Autoimmunity Project has written several articles documenting the
autism epidemic in the the British Medical Journal (http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7433/226-c)
and in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (http://www.jpands.org/vol8no4/yazbak.pdf)
and online at Red Flags Daily:
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/conferences/autism/2004_jan25.html
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/conferences/autism/2004_jan25_2.html)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to insure that drugs such as
vaccines are safe but to date the FDA has never funded one independent,
long-term safety study on any of the vaccines. At the same time, Congressman Dan
Burton had a conflict of interest and vaccine development hearing on June 15,
2000 that found that members of the FDA and CDC had ties to the pharmaceutical
industry. (http://www.vaccinationnews.com/rally/openstmntconint.htm)
David Willman wrote an article in the LA Times on December 7, 2003 about the
conflict of interest among NIH employees with outside companies which Senator
Arlen Spector and Senator Tom Harkin held a hearing on January 22, 2004. Robert
Stacey McCain of the Washington Times wrote an article in 2003 about the NIH
funding a sex arousal study at Northwestern University for $147,000.00.
Congressman Dave Weldon said the following in the article:
(http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030623-102147-8935r.htm)
"While the NIH can find money to pay women to watch pornography and fund a
conference to tell everyone the obvious, funding for autism, Alzheimer's and
Parkinson's research continues to lag," said Rep. Dave Weldon, Florida
Republican, who is also a physician. "Clearly, the NIH grant-review process is
broken, and I'm going to work to fix it."
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) along with the CDC, NIH, and FDA continue to
deny a link between vaccines and autism and even that there is an autism
epidemic. The NIH will not replicate the clinical science of Dr. Vijendra Singh
and Dr. Andrew Wakefield. None of the agencies can explain why children with
autism have high levels of mercury in their hair samples, or why they have
elevated measles antibody titers, measles in the gut, measles in the spinal
fluid or test positive for myelin basic protein antibodies.
As time goes on the epidemic of autism will continue and The Autism Autoimmunity
Project will document the year to year increases that come from the US
Department of Education figures on autism. It is shameful that the IOM, CDC, NIH
and FDA are not taking a pro-active stance in stopping this epidemic and helping
to find treatments/cures for children/adults with autism. By denying a
connection they will not stop the epidemic, only research and treatment will do
that. The financial costs to the Federal government and the states will go in
the millions if not billions to take care of all these children when they reach
adulthood. The human costs are beyond calculation and will be a bitter harvest,
indeed, that our country will inherit. The time is NOW to do something about
this horrible and shameful epidemic.
Sincerely,
Raymond Gallup, Founder
The Autism Autoimmunity Project
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