FDA and CDC “Guilty” of Misconduct, Says Senate Report

http://mercury-freedrugs.org/docs/071001_PR_Mercury(Thimerosal)InVaccines_FDA&CDCGuiltyOfMisconductb.pdf
Mercury (Thimerosal) in Vaccines:
FDA and CDC “Guilty” of Misconduct, Says Senate Report
Press Release Contacts:
For Immediate Release CoMeD President [Rev. Lisa K. Sykes (Richmond, VA) 804-364-8426]
October 1, 2007 CoMeD Sci. Advisor [Dr. King (Lake Hiawatha, NJ) 973-997-1321]
WASHINGTON, DC – After an 18-month investigation into alleged government misconduct regarding Thimerosal in childhood vaccines, and its causal association with autism, Senator Enzi (R-Wyoming), Ranking Member of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, concluded, “Two allegations were sustained [and] one allegation was partially substantiated…”
Key among the substantiated allegations was the finding that: “FDA inappropriately utilized Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines regarding the dangers of mercury in vaccines containing thimerosal.” Thus, the FDA may have miscalculated the toxicity of Thimerosal in vaccines routinely administered to millions of pregnant women and children.
In addition, Senator Enzi acknowledged that a CDC-organized meeting, held June 7 and 8, 2000, at the Simpsonwood United Methodist Retreat Center, to discuss a study showing a link between mercury exposure through vaccines and autism, was questionable: “The CDC’s failure to invite to Simpsonwood representatives of advocacy groups, in combination with injudicious remarks by several Simpsonwood participants, did give rise to an appearance of impropriety.”
Other areas of concern included:
• Oversight agencies characterized by conflict of interest: The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, which reviewed the evidence and found no link between mercury exposure from vaccines and autism, inappropriately screened “potential committee members for possible conflicts of interest.”
• Government data used to assess the link between vaccine-related mercury exposure and autism was “…less than open and accessible to all researchers.”
• Despite mercury being decreased in some vaccines given to American children, no such decrease has been effected in vaccines manufactured and distributed to developing countries: “The contention that thimerosal is used in vaccines provided to third-world and developing countries is accurate.”
This report, released by Senator Enzi, is another in a long line of reports by government officials addressing the toxicity of mercury in medicine and reflecting the “…institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry”1 by US public health officials.
Parents of children with proven mercury poisoning now ask: How many reports by federal officials will be required before the national health agencies act to:
• Remove mercury from medicine,
• Recall and destroy drugs containing added mercury compounds, and
• Ban the production and distribution of medicines containing added mercury in the United States,
unless proven safe (“sufficiently nontoxic …”) and no mercury-free alternative exists?
For more information, go to: http://www.mercury-freedrugs.org
1 “Mercury in Medicine – Taking Unnecessary Risks,” Chairman Dan Burton, Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, May 2003.