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Top Republicans --
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., -- recently
sold the future of our children to Big Pharma for a
paltry $4 bucks a pop.
That's the
additional cost to produce a safe vaccine, a vaccine
minus the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.
Mercury is a deadly neurotoxin that has long been
known to cause serious learning disabilities and
death, and is strongly suspected in contributing to
autism. According to the California Public Schools
Autism Prevalence Report for the School Years
1992-2003, the increase in autism prevalence is
systemic across the entire United States "and should
be an urgent public-health concern ... The disease
frequency of autism now surpasses that of all types
of cancer combined."
The report notes a
1,086 percent cumulative growth rate of autism over
the period, with a 23 percent average annual growth
rate.
A recent study
published in the spring 2006 volume of the
peer-reviewed Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons shows that the rate of neurodevelopmental
disorders in children has decreased following the
removal of thimerosal from most American childhood
vaccines. However, only about one-third of the 11
million children vaccinated for influenza this year
will receive mercury-free vaccines.
At the end of last
year, President Bush signed the Public Readiness and
Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA), granting blanket
immunity to pharmaceutical companies for
vaccine-induced injuries. The measure is a carte
blanche for industry, allowing it even to
reintroduce mercury in vaccines that are clean, and
under the behest of the World Health Organization,
to continue shipping tainted vaccine to the
"developing world."
The federal
government has known enough to stop the use of
mercury in vaccines for more than a decade. Industry
has known of the dangers of thimerosal since at
least 1991.
But using the
preservative made the sale of vaccines more
profitable. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention has at times seemed just as concerned
about these profits as the companies themselves.
Cynics have noted the "revolving door" between
industry and government that seems to alter the
perspective of both. In 1999, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention recommended "the
elimination of thimerosal as soon as possible." In
2002, the CDC stated in a press release "all
vaccines will be thimerosal-free as soon as adequate
supplies are available." Yet, last year the CDC
refused to live up to its own policy by claiming "no
preference for thimerosal-free vaccines."
Laden with
millions in campaign contributions from the
industry, some members of Congress are eager to
plead that Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, and Eli
Lilly might have to close up shop if they were
forced to take responsibility for injuries caused by
their products. These companies hardly need the
help. Pharmaceuticals, despite their whining about
risk and R&D costs, are some of the most profitable
businesses in the country with the median profit
margin of the top 10 companies more than five times
that of all other industries on the Fortune 500
list.
In order to secure
passage of the PREPA, Sens. Frist and Ted Stevens,
R-Alaska, joined by Speaker Hastert, assured their
colleagues in the House-Senate conference committee
that immunity for the drug companies would not go
forward as a tack-on to the 2006 defense
appropriations bill.
There were no
public hearings on the immunity provision, no
debate, no disclosure of the proceedings of the
committee. Press coverage was virtually nonexistent.
According to one prominent member of the committee,
Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., "That legislation was
unilaterally and arrogantly inserted into the bill
after the conference was over in a blatantly abusive
power play by two of the most powerful men in
Congress." Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., called the
legislation "a blank check for the industry." Sen.
Robert Byrd, D- W. Va., dean of Senate rules,
opined: "There should be no dispute. The processes
leading to passage of this bill [was] an absolute
travesty.
" The PREPA is
unconstitutional. It removes the right to due
process and judicial review for persons injured by
vaccines, thus granting a virtual license to kill.
Under the new law, companies making vaccines can be
grossly negligent and act with wanton recklessness
and still escape liability as long as they can show
that their misconduct wasn't "willful." It is
impossible to conceive of a lower standard for the
drug companies or a higher burden of proof for
injured parties.
The refusal of the
drug companies to take responsibility for the
products they produce, and the complicity of the
highest levels of government in their refusal, will
diminish public confidence in the entire U.S.
vaccination program. Already, thousands of mothers,
including our own daughters, are fearful of having
their infants and toddlers vaccinated.
The PREPA also
pre-empts the laws of states, including California,
which have passed legislation outlawing mercury in
childhood vaccinations. Meanwhile, the CDC continues
to send its officials into state legislatures around
the country in attempts to abort measures banning
mercury.
It's worth
considering why the drug companies feel they need
such treatment. Is it because they have known for
decades that their product is harmful? As we learned
with Big Tobacco, denial is the first defense.
Eventually, the truth will come out about mercury
and the depravity of injecting a neurotoxin into the
bodies of infants and toddlers. |
