Most diseases have been described by the Chinese, the pharaohs, the Greeks or the Romans. Autism was not. A vaccine for Tetanus was developed in the US in 1924. One for Diphtheria became widely used during the 30s. The whooping cough vaccine was introduced in the late thirties, used widely in the mid forties and incorporated with Tetanus and Diphtheria as DTP shortly after that.

In 1942, Leo Kanner described 11 children with a new syndrome, which he called infantile autism, because he thought the children were either born with it or were affected early in life.

In the beginning, autism was very rare. By the late seventies, its incidence rose. In California, after MMR vaccination became widely used in 1978, autism rose at a 45º angle. Ten years later, in 1988, it rose just as sharply- indeed in a parallel fashion- in the United Kingdom, after the national MMR vaccination campaign was initiated there.

Before 1980, according to data from the Autism Research Institute, almost all parents, when questioned, said that they noted their infants’ autistic symptoms very early. Since 1980, about 66% of the parents described their children as developing normally until the age of 18 months and then exhibiting their first symptoms of autism. This new presentation, late-onset autism, is the most frequent now. Regression is unmistakable in many children. More importantly, children with autism are noted to have distinct medical issues: neurological, gastro-intestinal and immune, in addition to their isolation and their communication and serious sensory difficulties. We all know we have shifted from a pure psychiatric definition. These children are not “autistic”. They are medically ill. They have autism.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates equal education of children and reports yearly to the US Congress. Starting 1991, autism was listed as a separate entity. The number of children with autism aged 6-21 in US schools rose steadily from 5,415 in 1991-1992 to 78,717 in 2000-2001. According to the annual reports, in the seven school years between 1992-1993 and 1999-2000, autism increased in US schools by 435%: from 12,222 students aged 6-21 to 65,396. During that period, the increase in autistic syndromes was noted in all States but at different rates. Twenty-eight states had increases of over 500%. Of those, eighteen states had over 1,000% increases and in eight, autism increased by over 5,000%. These figures do not include children not attending schools and those already diagnosed, but who were not yet 6 and in school.

Every few months, some statistician comes out with a long dissertation that no one can understand and his or her own incidence of autism, usually in an xx: 10,000 format. These studies may impress peer reviewers in fancy journals, but they certainly do not make any sense to parents and educators.  All that Special Education Directors want to know is how to plan for the many children with autism they are serving, because every one of those children comes with a complex multidisciplinary team and a price tag of several thousand dollars a year.
Sometimes we read that some psychologist or psychiatrist is certain that the increase everyone talks about is not real, but merely due to better diagnosis, as if everyone before them was incompetent and autism is a disease that is easy to miss. The fact is that, since 1994, every detail of the diagnosis has to be in accordance with the more restrictive DSM IV. What is most upsetting about the epidemiological studies is that, the same drug companies, who produce vaccines, often fund them.

The epidemic rise in autism we have witnessed cannot only be due to genetic causes. The recent increase in the proportion of late-onset and specifically regressive autism, points to environmental causes. Every potential environmental cause must be investigated and the studies must be clinical and thorough. A whole generation is being lost. A whole generation will have to be taken care of. What happens when our impaired children grow up? What of their adolescence and adulthood? One wakes up in the morning exhausted after a nightmare, except this specific nightmare is here to stay. It won’t just go away when the sun comes out.

The decade of the nineties saw the proliferation of new vaccines, including one started in the nursery and given routinely to healthy babies with healthy mothers. Except for polio and the live virus vaccines, all vaccines a child received until lately contained a mercury derivative.

Why did we ever start using a poison, as a preservative?

Why have our vaccine authorities not re-evaluated the situation at regular intervals?

Why do we treat spilled mercury from a thermometer as a hazardous material, when we inject our children with a related product?

MMR and mercury are not the only causes of the recent increase in autism. But have the health authorities looked at any environmental cause?

What would the authorities be doing if all the children with autism actually had an infectious disease? I can tell you, they’d be clamoring in the streets and spraying trees! We’d have clinics set up in every school, and at street corners.

It is horrifying to see the utter LACK OF INTEREST that our health authorities have shown in investigating the massive increase in autism.
What are they afraid to find?

They should have realized by now that this epidemic is NOT going away.

The scientists and informed parents investigating the mercury angle are more convinced every day that mercury is responsible for a certain percentage of cases. Instead of investigating this angle, the vaccine authorities have simply denied it, offering poor studies against a mercury connection.

And then, in the dark of the night, a clause to protect the manufacturer of the mercury additive was tagged to the Homeland Security Bill, without the knowledge of its authors. For days, no one knew who was the culprit; and then, Dick Armey came out and said he was proud to have done what he did.

Our parents’ outcry was an immediate roar, and today, the first step will be taken to undo that terrible harm. The marvelous charity spearheading this Rally is dedicated to researching all causes of autism. From the Founder, to the President, to the Chapters Presidents to the members, we all agree that mercury is an important part of the greater autism-immune puzzle, and could very well have played a role in further increasing the immune fragility of our children, setting them up to be damaged by the MMR vaccine.

We are here to thank the legislators who are going to help all the families of children harmed and show them respect and support. We are glad they have seen the light. They should be proud as long as they live.

The American Academy of Pediatrics did the right thing by recommending the removal of thimerosal from routine pediatric vaccinations. After all, if we are not allowing mercury thermometers near babies, and mercury switches and thermostats in their homes, how can we dare inject mercury into their little bodies? Dr. Midthun, Director of Vaccine Research and Review, at the FDA, did not convince anyone when she testified at the December 10, 2002 Congressional hearing. When cornered, she could not state categorically that mercury in vaccines was not in any way connected to the increase in autism. No one knows how the rest of the FDA, and the people at NIH and CDC really feel about mercury and autism. Certainly, Armey did not need to protect Lilly if everyone were certain that mercury in vaccines was innocuous, or that causation cannot ever be proved. In fact, Dick Armey may have confirmed by his shameful deed, that indeed someone, somewhere knows that a Thimerosal - Autism connection does exist.

Time will come and it will be soon, when solid studies will convincingly prove that mercury has had a role, some role, in the causation of this autism epidemic. When that happens, someone will have to be responsible to all of these children, their families and their communities. Taxpayers should not and must not underwrite lifetime care for citizens whose injuries are traceable to negligence or deliberate indifference of an outside source.

A woman carelessly spills coffee on her self and receives a big settlement.  Another one smokes till she gets cancer, and a jury recommends giving her 28 billion dollars. And yet, when a poor innocent baby is maimed for life, it takes months of litigation, before some small awards - if any-- are made. Because so many children’s lives have been affected, we must ensure that their lifelong costs are considered and provided for.

For us here “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, even if they have autism”
Our children and grandchildren were injured.

They deserve nothing less than justice.

F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP, TL Autism Research, Falmouth, Massachusetts