Drug company Merck knowingly contaminated America’s children with up to 87 times the recommended safe level via various vaccines, reports the Los Angeles Times. Mercury is a neurotoxin that many British parents believe caused their children’s autism.
Although the U.S. government revealed in 1999 that some children were being exposed to unsafe levels mercury, scientists have been reassuring parents that the shots are not the cause of autism. Victims of the disease have trouble with social interaction, are often clumsy and sometimes never learn to speak. Some children move on to be self-sufficient while others need lifelong care.
But even if the vaccine-related mercury is not responsible for the national and international surge in autism, a memo leaked to the Times shows that Merck knew it should consider not using the chemical as a sterilizing agent – called thimerosal – in the shots as early as 1991. Reports the Times:
“When viewed in this way, the mercury load appears rather large,” said the memo from Dr. Maurice R. Hilleman, an internationally renowned vaccinologist. It was written to the president of Merck's vaccine division. …
“The key issue is whether thimerosal, in the amount given with the vaccine, does or does not constitute a safety hazard,” the memo said. “However, perception of hazard may be equally important….”
“It appears essentially impossible, based on current information, to ascertain whether thimerosal in vaccines constitutes or does not constitute a significant addition to the normal daily input of mercury from diverse sources,” the memo said.
The rule in medicine should be, if you’re not sure how dangerous a chemical is, DON’T USE IT.
While the chemical is being phased out of most vaccinations, it can still be found in flu shots. Suddenly I’m glad the government’s ineptness prevented most of us from getting the flu shots for our children this year. Ironically, the contaminated flu shots that were made by Chiron, which uses a smaller quantity of thimerosal, reports The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Other states may soon join California and Iowa in banning the chemical from vaccinations. Washington state is considering such a law, reports Uninformed Consent. So is Minnesota, reports Pioneer Press.
Whether Merck winds up taking full blame for autism remains to be seen. Researchers are fast finding clues to the environmental factors that may be to blame in autism, reports The New York Times. Autopsies performed on victims of the disease reveal severe brain inflammation, which implies that the disease is triggered by a still undetermined immune response. Other clues include the strange wiring of autistic brains and brains that are too small.
On the other hand, we should be outraged that this drug company is knowingly sticking a neurotoxin into our children’s arms and buttocks. Even if thimerosal winds up not being to blame for autism, Merck and other drug companies should be punished for putting such dangerous compounds in the drugs and vaccinations we give our children.
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