A Few Facts on a Possible Link Between Autism and Childhood Vaccines

Anyone that says that it is proven that no link exists between vaccine injury and autism is either intentionally lying or ill-informed. This statement is based on two irrefutable facts: 

  1. The Unanswered Questions Study published in 2011 which confirmed the ‘Vaccine Court’ compensated at least 83 families for vaccine-induced brain injury that resulted in autism or autism-like symptoms.  These cases go back to the very beginning of the compensation program around 1990. https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1681&context=pelr
  2. The ‘Vaccine Court’ settled the case of Hannah Poling: “In its November 2007 decision the vaccine court said that the inoculations Poling received in July 2000 worsened her underlying mitochondrial disorder (which was discovered nearly a year later) and led to brain disease that appeared as symptoms of autism.”  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccine-injury-case-offer/   Its its important to keep in mind that while in the general population the mitochondrial disorder Hannah lives with is considered somewhat rare, in the autism community it is about 1 in 5, not rare at all.

They Cannot Pay without Evidence of Injury

Keep in mind that the ‘Vaccine Court’ i.e. the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is  a federally managed compensation program (read the Unanswered questions paper for the details and history) which is funded through an excise tax on vaccines.  The managers of this program at HHS, DOJ and the Federal Court of Claims all have an ethical duty to only compensate the injured. If there was not sufficient evidence to support the claim, the government will not/cannot settle. While in my opinion the program has many problems (that need Congressional attention), paying out a claim that is not supported with evidence is not one of them.

Finger Pointing Media (government and medical personnel) have 3 Fingers Pointing Back 

The misinformation campaign on the vaccine-autism debate is not from the parents of the injured, or from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. it is from anyone who tells you otherwise.  For 20 plus years media outlets, government officials, and medical professionals have pointed fingers at anyone like autism moms, Congressman Burton, and people like Mr. Kennedy  who dared speak up about the link between vaccines and autism  and said that it was a ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘misinformation’ or ‘unproven’.  For over two decades, as soon as someone calls into question the data on vaccine safety, they are bullied with disparaging labels such as ‘anti-vax’ or ‘anti-vaccine’.  It is in fact those pointing fingers and name calling that are the ones providing misinformation.

The truth is that name calling, the censoring is not helping anyone.  In fact the data show it is hurting millions who will be at increased risk of preventable brain injury.  The censorship has suppressed scientific rigor, the studies to investigate who is at higher risk for injury are not being conducted.

At the end of the day, its the children that matter, and none of the name calling, censoring and bullying is fixing the epidemic of autism.  As the staff lead on the initial congressional inquiry into this topic  that was launched over 20 years ago, I have first hand exposure to the data, actions, and debates.  In fact, after leaving my government position, I stayed involved directly for many years in freedom of information inquiries and reviews.  I have seen first hand the numerous attempts to shut down any discussion that might undermine vaccine policy. If you have a fire in your basement and you refuse to acknowledge it is there, does the fire go out on its own?  Not likely.  That is what is happening with our nation’s children  – the refusal to acknowledge the injury is not going to make the injured be less injured; or to prevent future injuries.

Just as the CDC admits below, autism has many causes – including genetic.

What is Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder? 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides this description:

“Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain. Some people with ASD have a known difference, such as a genetic condition. Other causes are not yet known. Scientists believe there are multiple causes of ASD that act together to change the most common ways people develop. We still have much to learn about these causes and how they impact people with ASD.

People with ASD may behave, communicate, interact, and learn in ways that are different from most other people. There is often nothing about how they look that sets them apart from other people.  The abilities of people with ASD can vary significantly. For example, some people with ASD may have advanced conversation skills whereas others may be nonverbal. Some people with ASD need a lot of help in their daily lives; others can work and live with little to no support.

ASD begins before the age of 3 years and can last throughout a person’s life, although symptoms may improve over time. Some children show ASD symptoms within the first 12 months of life. In others, symptoms may not show up until 24 months of age or later. Some children with ASD gain new skills and meet developmental milestones until around 18 to 24 months of age, and then they stop gaining new skills or lose the skills they once had.

As children with ASD become adolescents and young adults, they may have difficulties developing and maintaining friendships, communicating with peers and adults, or understanding what behaviors are expected in school or on the job. They may come to the attention of healthcare providers because they also have conditions such as anxiety, depression, or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, which occur more often in people with ASD than in people without ASD.”  (https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html)

Once Fairly Rare – Autism has Now Grown into an Epidemic

When I first started looking at the statistics in autism back in 1999, the peer reviewed statistics ranged from 1 in 10,000, to 1 in 2,0000.  They quickly jumped to 1 in 500. and today 1 in 36 children are on the autism spectrum.  

  • About 1 in 36 (2.8%) 8-year-old children living in ADDM Network sites were identified with ASD in 2020.
  • For the first time, the ADDM Network found that the percentage of 8-year-old Black, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander children identified with ASD was higher than among 8-year-old White children, which was the opposite of previously observed racial and ethnic differences across the ADDM Network.
  • Boys were nearly four times as likely to be identified with ASD as girls among 8-year-olds. However, the
    percentage of 8-year-old girls with ASD is now more than 1%.
  • About one third (37.9%) of children with ASD also had Intellectual disability (ID)  (https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/pdf/2023-ADDM-Factsheet_508.pdf)

Censorship in the United States

I attended the Congressional hearing on censorship and watched legislators attempt to censor Mr. Kennedy. https://www.c-span.org/video/?529216-1/robert-f-kennedy-jr-testify-censorship-free-speech-part-1   It was an historic day, but not for all the right reasons. I am reminded that censorship in this area goes back at least two Administrations.

  • HHS Secretary for President Obama Kansas Governor, Kathleen Sebelius “…We (the office of Secretary of Health and Human Services) have reached out to media outlets to try to get them not to give the views of these people equal weight in their reporting.”  (From her 2010 Reader’s Digest Interview)
  • 2019 Cong. Adam Schiff engaged with Social media to suppress instruct Facebook and others to American’s freedom of speech in social media dealing with vaccine topics.
  • Congressman Bill Posey pushed back against the false statements of Cong. Schiff (but was ignored by Zuckerberg et. al.)
  • Because no one pushed back extensively in Washington on Sebelius or Schiff – the flood gates opened during the COVID Pandemic and finally Congress and the conservative media woke up and are now addressing the issue.

Not every vaccine injury case is about autism – https://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/health-family/article11620775.html  Little Angelica suffered seizures and brain injury.  And even as the story reports was bullied online.

HHS and DOJ Already Knew There was an Autism-Vaccine Link Before Congress Engaged on the Issue

After leaving my work with Congress, I learned that neither the Congress, nor the public had been fully informed.  The entire 4+ year inquiry could have been avoided had there been transparency in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) outcomes.  The truth is that individuals at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice already knew that some children suffered brain injury from their childhood vaccines that resulted in the development of autism or autism like symptoms.  The fact that officials from HHS and even Special Masters in the program testified and failed to mention that cases of vaccine induced brain injury resulting in autism or autism like symptoms had been compensated since the inception of the program is unconscionable but is exactly what happened between 1999 and 2003 in the Halls of Congress.

This was proven with the independently conducted study done after the Autism Omnibus Proceeding hearings and published in a peer reviewed legal journal.  As we learned, the government maintains a database of all of the cases that are filed in the VICP including the outcomes and settlement. This database, was proven to exist by the Associated Press, after they and others were initially told by government officials it did not exist.  I’ve seen redacted versions of the database, and know there is a wealth of information that needs to be studied.  Transparency and a need to properly inform require that this dataset be  summarized and posted on the HHS website.

Instead of government experts providing this data, it took an independent team to gather and review approximately 2500 compensated cases from the VICP. In that small subset of cases, they found 83 compensated cases for vaccine induced brain injury in which autism or autism symptoms resulted.  Mary Holland, Louis Conte, Robert Krakow, and Lisa Colin, Unanswered Questions from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury, 28 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 480 (2011)  DOI: https://doi.org/10.58948/0738-6206.1681
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol28/iss2/6

Not unlike the now infamous FDA thimerosal slide, it is more likely than not, that somewhere in the bowels of HRSA, DOJ or the Court there is a buried staff prepared report detailing exactly how many vaccine induced brain injury cases resulting in autism or autism like behaviors have been before the program and how many of those were compensated.

To deny the data simply personifies the statement – there are none so blind as those who will not see.

Over these last 2 decades I have met thousands of the families affected by this type of medical injury.  The first wave of the vaccine-induced autism children are now in their mid-30s and 40’s.   Is every individual with autism the result of vaccine injury?  No, but some are.  The unanswered question today is what percentage.  Is it 2 percent, 10 percent, 30 percent.  Without correctly and honestly studying it we may never know, and the injuries will continue.

Sometimes the truth is inconvenient, but that does not make it any less true.  

One day maybe we can talk Justice!  That day will not come if we keep denying this inconvenient truth that there is evidence that some children suffered a vaccine induced brain injury that resulted in autism or autism like behaviors.

Two Valued Resources: 

Children’s Health Defense – https://childrenshealthdefense.org/

National Vaccine Information Center – https://www.nvic.org/

Both would welcome your donations.

(*Any opinions expressed are my own and do not represent any individual or organization I am now or have been associated with in the past.)

For a walk down memory lane – from C-span.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?156441-1/autism-childhood-vaccines

https://www.c-span.org/video/?174176-1/childhood-vaccines-autism

https://www.c-span.org/video/?167082-1/vaccine-injury-compensation

https://www.c-span.org/person/?86092/KathiWilliams 

https://www.c-span.org/video/?173720-1/vaccination-safety-part-1

https://www.c-span.org/video/?173720-2/vaccination-safety-part-2

https://www.c-span.org/video/?159153-1/vaccination-issues

https://www.c-span.org/video/?320102-5/rise-autism-rates-research-funding

https://www.c-span.org/video/?309672-1/federal-response-rise-autism-rates

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4201064/user-clip-testing-autism-vaccinated-unvaccinated-children

 

Living Through Your Grief

February 28, 2022 – the Day that changed my world forever.  It was the day my mother, my only living parent took her last breath in this world, and walked through that door we call death, into the Afterlife.  I thought I was ready, I thought I could handle grief from the passing of the most significant person in my life -the very person who gave me life.  I had planned for years to be in control and not fall apart.  I had studied death and dying from a scientific and spiritual perspective.  I had read Elizabeth Kubler Ross, I have been a hospice volunteer, I had talked with Mom about her feelings, beliefs, and desires for her funeral.  I had great friends to lean on to discuss my feelings with, I had prayed, and prepared.

And then the inevitable happened. And at 89 years of age, my beautiful, head strong, mother with all her talents, wittiness, opinions, and imperfections (like the rest of us) was not sitting in her nursing home watching the news ready to take my telephone call.

I am comfortable that Mom is no longer suffering and in pain, I am comfortable and confident that she is in Heaven and living her best afterlife. Those first few days, it was putting one foot in front of the other just to function in my grief.  The details of cleaning out her nursing home room and packing what we would keep; of meeting and planning the service, all filled the space.

My children all flew in – were there with me at the funeral…my brothers were in Heaven to receive Mom, neither sister able to attend the service…just me to see her wishes fulfilled.    My aunt and cousins and a niece were there as well.  My friend from childhood, who mastered all the same skills and crafts Mom tried to pass on to me came in support.

The service Mom wanted, she got right down to the singing of Ave Maria (in a Baptist Church no less as noted by the preacher) and the lone bag piper for the procession to the grave sight.

And then, each day when I went home and at the end of my day – my routine of calling Mom made it all a reality.  Each day for weeks, I paced my living room when I got home. No Mama to call and talk the days events, to talk about the latest political antics, to share the joy of work accomplishments.  I was broken, crippled in grief , all I wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry but I could not.  Life has to be lived, jobs have to be done.  I had to get up everyday and carry on.  And so I have, carried on that is. Each day, I get up and live through my grief.  Slowly I’m making my way through her things and able to process; but grief has no timeline I’m learning.  Some days are easier, and occasionally there is a rough patch.

The worlds of Queen Elizabeth have wrung true to me during this time, After 9-11 she told the people of the United Kingdom:

“Grief is the price we pay for love.”

And so it is, each day I remember Mom, when I need to feel her close, I spray her favorite cologne (Oscar by Osca De La Renta) like I did this morning.  And remember, my grief is so strong because our love is so strong.  I have with my family and friends had moments of laughter, remembering some stellar Mama moments.  The first was imaging what happened in Heaven when Mom and Dad crossed paths -wondering did she hug him or slug him (over the infidelity that lead to divorce).

I know I am tremendously blessed as both my parents lived long lives – Dad’s passing was easier some how as we had the ‘long good bye’ that comes with dementia and because when he passed, I felt his spiritual presence so intently with me.  I am also blessed because I have a sure foundation in a spiritual belief system that assures me I will be with my parents again.

I share this at this point because I’m prompted to.  I am able to speak of it, write of it,  without tears.  I know I am not singular in this matter,  somewhere, someone else is also missing their Mom.

                                                             

 

The Crossroad We Arrive on as a Nation in 9 Days

October 30, 2022: Whatever your political leanings, if you are a voter in these United States, decision day is finally near.  For the last two years, the US  Federal government has been under one party rule  -the Democratic party has been on control of  the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives.

The last election cycle happened six months into the COVID-19 lockdowns, shutdowns, and mandates.  According to the US Energy Information Administration, the national Retail price of regular gasoline in October 2019 was $2.497 per gallon in the US.  In September 2022, the price is $3.563. In California the October 2019 rate was $3.497 and in October 2022 is $5.50. The national price of diesel fuel was $2.385 in October 2019 and is currently $5.341.

Inflation, the economy, national security, and immigration are all issues in which the outcome of the November 8, 2022 election will be dramatically effected.  The opinions on addressing these by those on the right and the left have little in common.

We are truly at a crossroads in this nation.  The outcomes of the election more so this year than in part years is not so much about the individual candidate, but about the party the candidate will caucus with.  When elected members of the House and Senate will vote either with the Democratic caucus, which very powerful fractions that are pushing the party further left than anytime in history.

Over the last 2 election cycles, four candidates who are members of the Democratic Socialists of America running as Democrats have been elected to office, and have used their social medial prowess and activism to move the  party much further left than under The Clinton or Kennedy years.  Powerbrokers behind the scenes have funded the election of District Attorneys and others in local communities who have very progressive ideals that include open borders, cashless bail, and suppression of free speech.

All indications are the American people are tired of the divisiveness and dysfunction in Washington.  Americans want those in Congress to get about the business of being legislators, representing their constituencies and meeting their own deadlines.

One of the biggest examples of the divisiveness that must improve is the failure of Congress to operate under regular order.  Did you know it has been over a quarter century since Congress passed the federal budget under regular order.  26 years ago was the last time Congress passed all 12 appropriations bills by the October 1 deadline.  26 years of increasing reliance on Continuing Resolutions, which mess up agency planning, grant funding, and so much more.  The practice of issuing omnibus bills that run in the thousands of pages and are voted on a day after being published by legislators who have not read the bill is crazy and does not well serve the people.

Are you ready for election day?  Do you know what is going to be on your ballot? If not, you can look it up at https://www.ballotready.org/

These last two weeks leading up to election day are typically frenzied for those on the campaign trail.  Will election day go smoothly? Will we have announcements on all races that night or will it drag out?

Right or Left, which path on the cross roads will the nation be focused come January?

Always,

Beth