Autism Continues to Rise, Vaccines Without Mercury

Jia-Rui Chong from the Los Angeles Times reports (Jan 8, 2008, Mercury's removal doesn't stop autism's rise, study shows, repost on the Chicago Tribune):

The prevalence of autism in California children continued to rise after most vaccine manufacturers started to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in 1999, suggesting that the chemical was not a primary cause of the disorder, according to a study released Monday.

The analysis found that from 2004 to 2007, when exposure to thimerosal dropped significantly for 3 to 5 year olds, the autism rate continued to increase in that group from 3.0 to 4.1 per 1,000 children.

"If mercury exposure in vaccines was a major cause of autism, then the number of . . . affected kids should have diminished once they were no longer exposed to thimerosal," said Dr. Robert Schechter, lead author of the study and a medical officer at the state Department of Public Health. "That is not what we found."....

...Over the last two decades, the number of cases has boomed across the country for still-unexplained reasons. Psychiatrists estimated that 20 years ago there were 0.2 to 0.5 cases for every 1,000 children. Last year, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were 6.6 cases per 1,000 schoolchildren, based on a study of 8-year-olds.....

...The researchers looked at all reported cases in the state starting with children born in 1989. They found the number of cases per 1,000 children has been steadily increasing from that point to March 2007, the end point of the study....

...The National Autism Assn. criticized the study, saying that some children may still be exposed to mercury through either flu shots or trace amounts in other vaccines. The group also said that some vaccines containing thimerosal had expiration dates as late as 2005 and may have been used up to that point.

Merck's Hib vaccine for children - recalled

Mike Strobbe at the Chicago Tribune has the story on the vaccine recall: Merck & Co. is recalling about a million doses of ... Hib, which prevents meningitis and pneumonia. It is a three-dose shot recommended for all children under 5 and is usually given to infants starting at two months old.

... the company did not find contamination in the vaccine itself, but in the plant where the vaccine is produced in West Point, Pa.

The High Cost of Lobbyists

UPI reports:

...When fear of anthrax was at its peak, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, scientists at the Institute of Medicine called for a vaccine that was effective in 30 days, had few side effects and a long shelf life, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

VaxGen Inc. of San Francisco was preparing just such a vaccine, and even won an
$877.5 million contract, but its product never made it into the stockpile because of lobbying by the old vaccine's producer, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. of Rockville, Md., the Times said.

Emergent, which relied on its anthrax vaccine to remain solvent, hired 50 lobbyists, turning the tables quickly on VaxGen. Stricter testing requirements were imposed, and Congress overruled the advice of scientific advisers who recommended the company be paid partially in advance to finalize the vaccine, the newspaper said.

As a result, six years later, the stockpile is filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the Emergent vaccine, the Times reported,
and Emergent continues to win new federal contracts.

Emergent's Board of Directors includes Joe Allbaugh and Jerome Hauer.