Dr. Bernadine Healy: Don't Dismiss Vaccine Link

Misery loves company, and so do controversial journalists.

As someone who has come under, shall we say, "sniper fire" for refusing to concede that there is no link between vaccines and autism, I now have a semi tongue-in-cheek response to my once and future critics: "Go tell it to Dr. Healy."

Tonight on CBS News, Sharyl Attkisson, (another reporter who questions the government's dismissal of any vaccine-autism link) conducted an extraordinary interview with "a powerful medical voice," who is "breaking ranks with her colleagues" on the autism contretemps: Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health.

She was interviewed on the first day of the first test-case hearing in so-called Vaccine Court, on whether the mercury-based preservative thimerosal can cause autism.

"I think public health officials have been too quick to dismiss the hypothesis as 'irrational,' without sufficient studies of causation... without studying the population that got sick," Dr. Healy told Attkisson. "I have not seen major studies that focus on 300 kids who got autistic symptoms within a period of a few weeks of the vaccines."

This is exactly what I, and many other government critics have been saying for years: Large population studies are not enough to disprove a link. One must look at the kids who actually regressed into autism, and determine what factor or factors might have contributed to their regression.

This is especially true if there is a subset of children who are particularly susceptible to such environmental triggers. "Populations do not test causality," Dr. Healy said, "they test associations."

And she noted, "We do have the opportunity to understand whether or not there are susceptible children -- perhaps medically, perhaps they have a metabolic issue, mitochondrial disorder, medical issue -- that makes them more susceptible to vaccines, plural, or to one particular vaccine, or to a component of vaccines, like mercury."

The problem is, prestigious groups such at the Institute of Medicine have concluded there is no link, based almost solely on large population studies, without giving enough consideration to data culled from children who actually developed the disorder.

Dr. Healy is a member of the IOM: "I love Institute of Medicine," she said, "but a report from 2004 basically said, 'Do not pursue susceptibility groups. Don't look for those children who may be vulnerable.' I really take issue with that conclusion."

The reason why officials didn't want to look for those groups? "Because they were afraid that, if they found them, however big or small they were, that would scare the public away," Dr. Healy explained. "They don't want to pursue this hypothesis because it could be damaging to the public health community at large by scaring people. I don't believe the truth ever scares people."

Dr. Healy is hardly "anti-vaccine," and neither am I. In fact, I agree completely that, "if we identified a particular risk factor for vaccines, or if we found out that they should be spread out a little longer, I do not believe that the public would lose faith in vaccines. I think the public is smarter than that. You should never turn your back on any scientific hypothesis because you are afraid of what it might show."

What it "might show" is precisely what attorneys are arguing this month in vaccine court: According to research from the University of Washington, primates exposed to thimerosal had an accumulation of mercury in their brains. Similar accumulation has been shown to activate certain brain cells, producing "neuro-inflammation" and brain swelling. Autopsies on deceased people with autism also show chronic neuro-inflammation and activation of the same brain cells, known as glial cells.

Like many people reading this post, Dr. Healy at first considered the vaccine-autism link to be "silly." But, she said, "the more you delve into it, if you look at the basic science, if you look at the research that has been done in animals, if you look at some of the individual cases, and if you look at the evidence that there is no link, what I come away with is, the question has not been answered."

Thank you, Dr. Healy. On behalf of open minded journalists, researchers, parents, politicians (including all three presidential candidates) and Huffington Post readers, your candor is a welcome addition to this debate. You have placed a much-needed wake up call to your esteemed colleagues: Some will attack you; but the majority will listen.

NOTE: CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has posted her own blog on this subject.

CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta also interviewed Dr. Healy and wrote about it on his blog.

Comments

[Gatogorra]

Bernadine Healy appears to be a one-stop shopping experience for integrity of all sorts:

http://tinyurl.com/6659ht

[CraigWilloughby]

Hearing her say all of this nearly brought me to tears. My hope and my passion have been failing after a rough weekend, but hearing her saying, "I believe you, I believe there may be a link and we need to study this," nearly overwhelmed me. An accredited IOM doctor and former head of the NIH! Bless her for her views and openly speaking them. The autism community will be behind her 100% when the smear campaign begins by the nay-sayers. But they won't be able to say "nay" anymore pretty soon if enough people like this wonderful woman come forward. They've been ignoring our voices, but they won't be able to anymore. The part that chilled me the most was "a report from 2004 basically said, 'Do not pursue susceptibility groups. Don't look for those children who may be vulnerable­.' I really take issue with that conclusion­." "

Hey, vaccine militants? We have another conversion on over here. Perhaps you should listen to her? She is one of your saintly doctors, after all....

[ARealConservative]

HuffPost's Pick

Actually, I believe that while there is not a conspiracy, there is in fact real shared and driving fear on the part of public health officials and medical researchers that they may have "blown it big time". Consider the implications of such a finding. Thousands of American children with tremendous public costs. Even worse, internationally perhaps millions of children might be affected. The real fear is that the public might hold them accountable for their failures and be more skeptical (it is science - we are supposed to be) in the future.

However, most of us parents don't really care about all of that. We would just like to know how to make it possible for Kevin to have a normal life. In better science and studies are better answers and more hope. Perhaps we will find a coexistent solution for vaccines and less autism. A better chance for the children being born today to have less chance of facing the same challenges. I am not anti-vaccine, I am pro-Kevin. Why is it that the vaccine militants don't get that?

[ObjectiveAutismDad]

I agree, for the most part. I'm guessing that many were just going along with the flow. And, the vast majority of the main-stream (I often refer to them as entrenched) medical community really do want to help people. That said, I think there must be a few bad apples in high places that are holding the wool or blinders or whatever over some peoples' eyes.

I absolutely agree 100% with your second paragraph. I'm very happy this year that all three (two?) of the remaining presidential candidates support stem-cell research; which I think is the only really promising area for treatment of my son's brain injury (after we finish getting the mercury, aluminum, arsenic and lead out).

[lisakaz2]

I have mercury poisoning, though the "conventional" docs call it MS. I think the issue with mercury is serious and anyone who thinks they have health problems should seriously look at the toxicity of the environoment or of their diet.

[linlou34]

I would like to say thank you to Dr. Healy ! We need answers and we need hope. I would also like to thank you David for your dedication, once again. I would love to find out for sure once and for all, how my son had to have autism. I would like to have him tested. I know I am not alone on this. Just to be able to know, maybe we can find the cure and save our kids from being locked in their autism prison. I sure hope this will happen for my son as well as all of our kids.
Peace and take care.

[nhokkanen]

Thank you, Dr. Bernadine Healy! Such an articulate voice of reason, reintroducing such a simple concept -- to find out WHY vaccines injure some children.

All these years of denial have been such a tragic waste of time, a waste of health and abilities and lives. Only to realize that for some people working for the CDC, the bureaucracy means more than the children it purports to protect.

No, David Kirby, you are not alone in seeing the writing on the wall. Let us now hope that others find their dislocated spines, their long-lost senses of morality, and reboot their code of ethics. Every child is worth protecting from disease, even if that disease was caused by the best of intentions.